Press release January 2, 1997

JOSEPH ATCHINSON, Ph.D., Consultant on non-wood fibers and winner of the prestigious Tappi Gunnar Nicholson Gold Metal Award, the highest possible award from the pulp and paper industry. He states, "It is my opinion, after working for more than 40 years on the utilization of non-wood and plant fibers, of all types, for pulp and paper manufacture, that hemp has very little or no potential use in the U.S. Pulp and paper Industry."

ROBERT G. ROBINSON, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics. (Grew hemp for crop research purposes). Dr Robinson states, "Prior to 1938, hemp production was legal and declining. If it is such a good idea, why did people stop planting it when they could plant it? It certainly was not the law that stopped marijuana from being produced for pulp."

JAMES F. HOPKINS, respected Kentucky historian, stated in his book, 'A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky', "Wartime expansion of the hemp industry threatened to bring about an increased narcotics traffic long after the extensive production of fiber was abandoned."

DUANE JOHNSTON, Ph.D., New Crop Specialist, Colorado State University of Agronomy. He says "Hemp oil cannot compete with oils such as canola and soybean."

M. SCOTT SMITH, Professor and Chair of the University of Kentucky Department of Agronomy. Professor Smith writes: "All economic figures on hemp production, including my own, are highly speculative and theoretical. It is my opinion that, if legalized, hemp is unlikely to become more than a minor agricultural commodity." He further states "...simple extrapolations from small markets to larges scales are invalid."

Kentucky Governor Brereton Jones' 17-member Hemp and Related Fiber Task Force. In its final report released June 1995, concluded that growing hemp had too many legal obstacles to overcome and would not prove to be a financial benefit to farmers - that there is no market for hemp, no infrastructure for hemp. And no industry willing to invest in developing an infrastructure.