The United States Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Office of the President, says that "current available facts do not support hemp cultivation as a....viable option for U.S. interests....legalizing hemp would send a confusing message to our youth concerning marijuana....and may lead to the de facto legalization of marijuana cultivation." (July 29, 1997 ONDCP Statement on Industrial Hemp)
    The anti-drug prevention group Drug Watch International says that "The current campaign to reintroduce hemp/marijuana in the United States and Canada as a viable and essential agriculture commodity is a subterfuge being employed by the pro-drug lobby to weaken the existing strong public aversion to the legalization and general use of psychoactive and addictive drugs." (July 1994 Position Statement Hemp (Cannabis Sativa)
    Eric Sterling, pro-drug advocate, has referred to the drug culture's "leaky bucket" strategy. "Legalize....in one area, and sooner or later it will trickle down into the others." (Mademoiselle, Sept. 1993)
    Matthew Cheng and Alex Shum, marijuana proponents and importers of hemp fabric, "feel that the way to legalize marijuana is to sell marijuana legally.  When you can buy marijuana in your neighborhood shopping mall, IT'S LEGAL! So, they are going to produce every conceivable thing out of hemp"....(Drug culture magazine High Times, March 1990)
    Paul Stanford, pro-drug activist, and described by the drug culture magazine High Times as "the prime mover behind America's hemp industry," has a long history of pro-marijuana advocacy activities and was arrested for growing. (High Times, December 1990 and issues of The Oregonian)

    Opposition to industrial hemp/marijuana (typically suggested to contain under 1% of the psychoactive substance THC) is based on economic, environmental, and law enforcement/anti-drug grounds.

    1. Barry R. McCaffrey, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, reports "according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Commerce, the profitability of industrial hemp is highly uncertain and probably unlikely." McCaffrey notes (July 29, 1997 ONDCP Policy Statement on Industrial Hemp) that "Countries with low labor costs....have a competitive advantage over any U.S. hemp producer"....  ...."ready availability of other low-production cost raw material has been the major reason for a 25% drop in worldwide hemp production in the past three decades."
    "Hemp is a novelty product with limited sustainable development value even in a novelty market." "For every proposed use of industrial hemp, there already exists an available product, or raw material, which is cheaper to manufacture and provides better market results." (Examples cited include the finest flax linen, at $7.50/square yard, vs. the cheapest hemp linen, at about $15/square yard, and the mere $500 per ton finished newsprint selling price, vs. a break-even raw hemp production price of $630 per ton.)

    2. Joseph E. Atchison is a professional award-winning non-wood plant fiber scientist and consultant. In 1996, he received the highest possible award from the pulp and paper industry (the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry/TAPPI Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal Award). Atchison cooperates with anti-drug groups, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy in refuting hemp myths.
    Atchison writes ....."there appears to be no basis whatsoever for the exorbitant claims, being made in the media, for the great potential for the use of hemp, in the pulp and paper industry....in the U.S. pulp and paper industry, the potential (for use of hemp) is very limited." The bast fiber (bark portion of the stalk, perhaps 25% of the stalk weight)...."is a very expensive fiber and the demand for such a specialty pulp is very limited. It could never be considered for economic manufacture of any of the mass produced grades of paper or paperboard."
    The (stalk) core material (hurds; 75% of the stalk weight) would have very little potential, for all of the grades of paper, which are claimed, by the hemp/marijuana lobby, for its potential use, such as writing and printing paper, xerox paper, computer printout paper, and many other grades....it results in a very poor quality chemical pulp, and the very slow drainage characteristics....would make it highly undesirable, for high speed, or even moderate speed paper machine operation." (Text prepared for presentation at the "Marijuana: Myths, Concerns, Facts" Conference, November 5-6, 1997, Jefferson City, Missouri.)
    Atchison also says...."claims that the hemp hurds or core material, could be used in all types of paper....is....nonsense"....(August 14, 1995 letter to Kentucky Governor's [Hemp] Task Force) Atchison labels as "complete nonsense" the claim that hemp could replace 70 percent of wood-pulp based paper production in the United States by 2025. (July 26, 1996 letter to Mary Anne File, Catholic Forester.) 

    3. "According to the August 1996 nationwide poll....there is little national interest and activity in industrial-hemp production. There is limited investment interest in candidate mainland areas".... (January 1997 Industrial Hemp Study for the Hawaii Legislature)
    4. Drug Watch International, the anti-drug prevention organization, says that "Better alternative products (to hemp) exist in every case." (July 1994 Position Statement Hemp (Cannabis Sativa) "Cotton is the number one fiber crop of the world because it is the cheapest and most useful. For finer clothes, there is linen from flax." (January 1995 paper Hemp by Sandra S. Bennett, Jeanette McDougal, and Wayne Roques)
    "Many plants such as corn, sorghum, and alfalfa produce more tonnage per acre....and are already meeting market demands for alternative fuels"....(July 1994 Position Statement Hemp (Cannabis Sativa)
    "Hemp fiber is inferior for making rope, twine, and other products where durability and strength are important. Unlike plastic and synthetics, hemp absorbs water, becomes heavy and rots easily." (July 1994 Position Statement Hemp (Cannabis Sativa)
    5. "Every foreign country that grows hemp, subsidizes it. In some...up to $500 per acre." (June 19, 1996 paper Hemp/Marijuana by anti-drug prevention activist and Educational Consultant Beverly Kinard, Hemp Education Center of America)
    6. In January 1998, the American Farm Bureau national convention voted to oppose production of hemp and also dropped language favoring hemp research.

    7. A study, purportedly showing that "hemp could profitably be used as a fiber source for the paper industry" in Wisconsin, and suggesting that Wisconsin farmers could grow 530,000 acres of industrial marijuana, has been referred to in the media several times during 1997. This "Market Analysis for Hemp Fiber as a Feed Stock for Papermaking" is cited as a report of the U.S. Agriculture Department's Forest Products Laboratory in Madison. This report has been discredited and should be discounted or ignored because of the very inadequate research. The Forest Products Laboratory has advised that it was not authorized, is not a product of the Laboratory's research or its publishing process (which the report would not have survived), the author (Houtman) is not a Laboratory employee, and that neither the Laboratory nor Houtman have any expertise in "hemp, its uses, and policy implications."  Houtman has since stated that "it cannot be concluded that hemp is a viable crop based on (his calculations in the report) alone."

    1. Joseph E. Atchison is a professional award-winning non-wood plant fiber scientist and consultant. In 1996, he received the highest possible award from the pulp and paper industry (the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry/TAPPI Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal Award). Atchison cooperates with anti-drug groups, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy in refuting hemp myths.
    Atchison says that "The claim by the hemp/marijuana Lobby and by some environmentalists....that hemp is one of the Earth's most prolific and easy-to-grow plants, producing more than 4.1 times per land area than trees, without introducing fertilizers and pesticides, is completely false." The "4 times" figure stems from a 1916 U.S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin written long before trees were planted as a crop and reflected only the low natural forest growth rate. Atchison shows the reverse to now be true, as pulpwood yields are much higher and also less costly than hemp. Hemp needs to be fertilized, just like other crops. Fertilization rates actually used for hemp in the past are documented. Atchison notes that "liberal" fertilization is required for high hemp fiber yields; hemp requires large amounts of water; hemp takes more nutrients out of the soil than other grain crops; relative to annual fiber crops, hemp removes more soil nutrient that cotton or flax; and hemp sometimes has diseases that can be controlled with pre-planting fungicides. (Text prepared for presentation at the "Marijuana: Myths, Concerns, Facts" Conference, November 5-6, 1997, Jefferson City, Missouri.)
    2. The anti-drug prevention organization Drug Watch International says that "Contrary to the myth that 'we're running out of trees,'....timber growth....exceeds annual harvests by 33 percent........the number of trees is greater today....than at any time since the turn of the century. Furthermore, forests are healthier if mature trees are harvested." (July 1994 Position Statement Hemp (Cannabis Sativa)
    "The nation's forest land base....is still about two-thirds the size it was when European settlement began".... (January 1995 paper Hemp by Sandra S. Bennett, Jeanette McDougal, and Wayne Roques)
    "Nothing can compete with forests for paper pulp as far as saving energy and absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Many fast growing trees are being used for this purpose and new ones are being developed." ...."a crop of Minnesota aspen trees harvested about every 15 to 20 years for paper pulp is far more energy efficient and vastly more efficient at removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than hemp or any other annual plant. With proper management, aspen forests regenerate themselves".... (January 1995 paper Hemp by Sandra S. Bennett, Jeanette McDougal, and Wayne Roques)
    Hemp is not going to save the environment. It "is an annual crop. Every year the soil would have to be prepared....cultivated and plowed, leaving no vegetative cover....to give off oxygen into the atmosphere." Hemp('s)...."cultivation damages soil productivity and causes as much loss of soil from erosion as most of the common field crops but it is more damaging than others." ..."hemp's roots are hardly unusual (in preventing soil erosion). Corn and other grass crops do a better job ....because they have more extensive, fibrous root systems." (Hemp)...."does not add nitrogen to the soil." "In countries where hemp is grown commercially, pesticides and fertilizers are used similarly as they are with all other commercial crops." (January 1995 paper Hemp by Sandra S. Bennett, Jeanette McDougal, and Wayne Roques)
    "Many plants such as corn, sorghum, and alfalfa....are more soil building than hemp ....and are already meeting market demands for alternative fuels".... (July 1994 Drug Watch International Position Statement Hemp (Cannabis Sativa)

Ditchweed problem percent of all counties having the problem (at the minimum)

Tending                                                                  39%
Using by itself as a drug                                           64%
Using to cut higher-quality marijuana                         29%
Processing into a higher-THC product                          8%
Juvenile use                                                             58%
Reports from schools about juvenile use                     38%

Quotes from county law enforcement officers in Wisconsin regarding ditchweed problems. Survey Conducted in Summer, 1997. Ditchweed has a drug potency comparable to that proposed for industrial marijuana.

1. "....arrested 2 juveniles for transplanting ditchweed and growing it....then packaging it with intent to deliver....my CEASE (Cannabis Enforcement and Suppression Effort) team eradicated 34 cultivated plants...All (34) started as wild and became cultivated." Deputy Mike Kroetz, Adams County Sheriff's Office.

2. "Wild 'ditchweed' has continued to be a problem in Columbia County....subject was harvesting wild marijuana for sale....The fact that wild marijuana is on a person's property, invites persons with criminal intent to that property." Detective Wayne A. Smith, Columbia County Sheriff's Office

3. ...."they plant good stuff in the ditchweed to conceal it. They also use the ditchweed, instead of buying good stuff. Most juveniles found with marijuana (is ditchweed).  We have found places where it is field dried." Capt. Gary D. George, Crawford County Sheriff's Office

4. "Locations of ditchweed marijuana are passed on from year to year between juveniles and adults. (We) Currently have several locations being used by juveniles and cultivated by adults. These areas are also used to cultivate higher quality plants that are integrated into ditchweed areas." Deputy Kevin Hill, Dodge County Sheriff's Office

5. "Problem I see....is that more people would be raiding such grows." Capt. Maurice Krohn, Grant County Sheriff's Office

6. "I see absolutely no way that private farmers could or would expend the type of resources necessary to provide proper security to industrial marijuana and strongly oppose any such proposal in the State of Wisconsin." Detective Jeff Skatrud, Green County Sheriff's Office

7. "....significant amount of criminal activity in the harvesting of (ditchweed). Youth along with adults commonly use this 'ditchweed' to supplement their marijuana supply." Deputy Timothy R. Lueptow, Green Lake County Sheriff's Office

8. "....ditchweed....is harvested by mainly juveniles....This allows...sellers....a very low cost high profit product. The potential client base....can now afford....the low quality marijuana and experience the "high"" at a younger age. This produces more users at a younger age and creates a demand for more marijuana ....recently exposed to a dealer that uses (ditchweed) to 'cut' commercial quality marijuana (and) lower his price....to sell....to a younger client base...." Det. Sgt. Paul Milbrath and Det. Timothy Madson, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office

9. "Our county's biggest problem with ditchweed is with juveniles. Our juveniles' drug problems start with this type of drug and work its way up. For a juvenile (first time user) it's easy to obtain this this way vs. buying from an unknown dealer." Deputy David Cornelius, Kewaunee County Sheriff's Office

10. "The eradication (of two large plots of ditchweed, involving hundreds of personnel hours) became necessary because of several arrests of adults and juveniles selling large quantities of the marijuana from these plots." Deputy Kurt Papenfuss, La Crosse County Sheriff's Office

11. "....two juveniles were arrested for possession of marijuana (ditchweed) with intent to deliver. They admitted picking ditchweed and....were drying the (44) plants (82.3 grams of marijuana)...." Deputy Joseph R. Konrath, Marquette County Sheriff's Office

12. "I have had too many incidents to list where juveniles were harvesting ditchweed. On one occasion the juvenile was filling suitcases with ditchweed and bringing it to school. This individual was giving some away and selling some to other students." Deputy Roger C. Olson, Polk County Sheriff's Office

13. "We have had drug dealers from the Twin Cities Metro Area harvesting our ditchweed....Every fall we receive numerous reports of kids harvesting ditchweed, and reports....of kids bringing marijuana to school rise dramatically..." Investigator Dave Hake, St. Croix County Sheriff's Office

14. "Some of the kids use the ditchweed as the drug. They have sold ditchweed....We have at times had patches of ditchweed....and found some of it harvested." Investigator Arthur C. Collins, Shawano-Menominee Drug Task Force

15. "(Juveniles are a) Large Problem!!!....We have a yearly problem with 17-25 year olds from the Fox Valley area coming into our County and harvesting 'ditchweed' and taking it back to their areas for resale...Also...Grade School Students from all our schools using 'ditchweed' as a first time experience...." Detective Randal Thurley, Waushara County Sheriff's Office

16. "Would every sample of seized cultivated marijuana have to be analyzed for THC content to get prosecution? I foresee District Attorneys refusing to issue search warrants on any growing operations because of the legal questions...." Deputy Timothy J. Ward, Wood County Sheriff's Office

    2. Low-THC marijuana/hemp can be used as a source for a higher potency illicit drug product. Selective harvesting of buds excluding large leaves would result in a higher-THC product. (April 25, 1994 letter from Karen Lovett, National Institute on Drug Abuse Marijuana Project Administrative Coordinator, to Charles Perkins)
    "THC (the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana/hemp) can be extracted from hemp leaves and....the concentration of THC in the extract will be several-fold higher than that in the plant material." (February 17, 1997 letter from Mahmoud ElSohly, Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse Marijuana Project, to Captain B.C. Baker, Missouri State Highway Patrol)
    Dr. Guy Cabral is a former marijuana researcher at the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institutes of Health. Cabral is now at the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, and writes ...."it is not a difficult process to chemically extract relatively pure THC from (hemp) plants....even hemp with low concentrations of THC could serve as a source of THC in relatively pure form using techniques and a knowledge base available to anyone with an understanding of basic chemistry." (February 14, 1995 letter from Cabral to anti-drug prevention activist and Educational Consultant Beverly Kinard) "Marijuana under 1% was quite common in the 70s and introduced an entire generation to the use of marijuana....I've had conversations with an individual, who at age 14, was harvesting ditch weed (wild low-grade) marijuana." ...."using and selling (the ditch weed marijuana)" ...."processing....into hash oil".... ...."mixed....with high grade marijuana for bulk." (April 16, 1997 letter from Captain Tom Kujawa, Marathon County Sheriff's Department, to hemp proponent Russell Weisensel, Wisconsin Agribusiness Council)
    "Yes, fiber hemp can have significant potential for narcotic applications." (1995 letter from Mahmoud ElSohly, Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse Marijuana Project, to Scott Smith, University of Kentucky)

    3. Law enforcement officers would have great difficulty in determining whether detected or seized marijuana/hemp was the high potency street drug type or the low grade industrial variety.
    Barry R. McCaffrey, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), says "Industrial hemp and marijuana are the product of the same plant....The seedlings are the same and in many instances the mature plants look the same." The only way to distinguish the two is by chemical analysis. (July 29, 1997 ONDCP Statement on Industrial Hemp)
    ...."a person cannot tell the difference between (industrial vs. drug use) growing plants with the naked eye." (April 25, 1994 letter from Karen Lovett, National Institute on Drug Abuse Marijuana Project Administrative Coordinator, to Charles Perkins)
    4. Persons who advocate the legalization of marijuana are using the marijuana/hemp issue as a way to advance their pro-drug cause. The April 1995 issue of the drug culture magazine High Times reported that (the) "H.E.M.P. organization stands for 'Help Eliminate Marijuana Prohibition.' "
    An August 1997 article in the pro-drug magazine High Times said "When people buy and see hemp it stimulates public awareness, mainstreaming the evil weed into a normal commodity whose days of illegality are numbered."
    "Absolutely do not get high the day of your presentation." (This is a "fundamental point" of guidance from a media skills coach to hemp advocates when speaking or interviewed, as published in the February/March 1996 issue of Hemp World.)
    Barry R. McCaffrey, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), says in view of the enforcement complexities that...."legalizing hemp production may mean the de facto legalization of marijuana cultivation."  (July 29, 1997 ONDCP Statement on Industrial Hemp)
    Marijuana has often been shown to be a correlate or predictor of other dangerous drug use. (Details available from Division of Narcotics Enforcement, Strategic Intelligence Section.)

    1. James Hopkins, in his 1951 Kentucky hemp history, said that "Wartime (World War II) expansion of the hemp industry threatened to bring about an increased narcotics traffic long after the extensive production of fiber was abandoned."
    2. A 1946 issue of Business Week stated that, "The Bureau of Narcotics will continue (after World War II) to require licenses for hemp growing, but so long as pushers can get $50 a gunnysack for leaves and flowers in illegitimate deals, peddling of marihuana (sic) will continue as one of the War's contributions to increased crime and juvenile delinquency."
    3. David Musto, noted drug abuse historian, says that, "World War II minimized the Federal Bureau of Narcotics' problems with smuggling and domestic addiction. Enforcement of the Marihuana (sic) Tax Act did not present much difficulty except for illicit use secondary to licensed hemp production to compensate for unavailable Far Eastern imports.
    A University of Vermont study concluded that the price farmers would receive for hemp would be grossly non-competitive in comparison with the prices for two other crops commonly grown. (Projections were only $101 per acre in the best-case scenario for hemp vs. $212 for hay and $525 for corn).
    A University of Kentucky study concluded that only 82,000 acres planted in hemp would satisfy the entire total demand in the United States. Wisconsin alone has approximately 17 million acres of farmland, with almost 970 million acres in the entire country. Thus, there is only a miniscule relative market for hemp in comparison with other farm crops. Hemp is not going to provide farmers with a significant new source of income.
    A North Dakota State University study noted there are no domestic facilities for processing hemp stalks, insufficient production and processing technology, and inadequate research on potential hemp crop quality and yield. The report notes that, despite the claims of hemp's commercial benefits, the global industrial hemp market has been declining for 30 years and remains negligible. Fiber production is at only one-fifth the level of the 1960s, seed production has fallen, and world exports continue to decline. This study took particular note of the absence of the large paper, textile, and oil multinationals in the hemp industry. These large companies have not invested much in hemp processing facilities in China or Europe. They are not calling for hemp's legalization in the United States. Presumably, their indifference and inaction in the hemp arena are based on good business sense.  If hemp is such a good crop, where is the interest of the large multinational companies?
    An Oregon State University study reported that hemp growing in the Pacific Northwest would require irrigation for production maximization, thus increasing costs, and leading to hemp competing with the highest value farm crops growing on the best soils. Moreover, yields would need to be "substantially" higher than recorded in other countries for hemp to be economically feasible in the region at current prices.

    Canadian hemp growers found great difficulty in selling their 1998 crop. A Canadian Government farm market analyst said that "None of the things...have much potential beyond a niche market. In the end it will come down to commercial acceptability. The drive (to grow hemp) has not come from the marketplace." The Canadian industrial marijuana/hemp industry has yet to acquire major funding for development an research. Governmental research funding, increasingly tied to market potential, is limited because major industries have not expressed an interest in hemp industry development.

    The European Union cut the subsidy provided to hemp farmers amid concerns that many were growing only for the financial aid and to limit opportunities for illicit marijuana cultivation.
    In January 1999, delegates to the American Farm Bureau's Annual Convention voted to take a neutral position on hemp, neither supporting nor opposing research or production.
    A January 1999 Legislative Briefing paper published by University of Kentucky Agricultural Economist Valerie L. Vantreese concluded that the question of whether hemp would be profitable for American farmers cannot be answered with certainty. Based on other countries' experiences, however, profitability here "....looks doubtful." America's farmers would have to contend with an insignificant domestic hemp manufacturing industry, a small demand, a market of questionable durability, and competitive disadvantages. Internationally, European hemp growers receive subsidies equal to about half the market price, and China's low-cost labor supply provides market dominance.