California’s farmers could soon be cultivating a new crop ?” hemp.

AB 1147, the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act, passed its final vote in the legislature on August 21 and now is awaiting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature or veto. It would define hemp as a distinct plant from marijuana, and would allow farmers in California to legally grow the plant.

Currently, only non-viable (non-sprouting) hemp can be grown in the United States without a special DEA permit. This means crops of hemp would have to be replanted every season if farmers want to continue to grow it. This would involve a tremendous amount of work, so most hemp consumers look elsewhere.

California businesses spend millions of dollars each year importing hemp, mostly from Canada, China and Europe, according to a press release from the non-profit organization Vote Hemp. This imported hemp is fueling a large and diverse market, it said.

“The U.S. hemp market now exceeds $270 million in estimated annual retail sales,” said the Vote Hemp press release.

If hemp were grown in California, it could lead to lower prices and an expansion of the already growing hemp market, said Jennifer Kruse, a manager for Hemp in the Heartland, a store on K Street in Old Sacramento that specializes in hemp products.

Hemp has a variety of uses, including clothing, food, paper, and even fuel that could be utilized by a diesel engine. Pretzels made from hemp are even available online at www.hempzels.com.

Because hemp and marijuana are both plants from the Cannabis genus, some fear that this bill might lead to an increase in illegal marijuana production.

AB 1147 “would not weaken anti-drug laws,” according to Vote Hemp. The bill would place a limit on the amount of the psychoactive chemical tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as THC, that could be present in industrial hemp, and would prohibit “backyard or horticulture crops, the press release said. These restrictions seem to be enough to satisfy some who might not have supported the bill otherwise.

It’s fine as long as you can’t smoke [the crops], said SacramentoState senior economics major Ben Moffat.

Some critics of this bill have wondered if legal hemp fields could be used to disguise illegal marijuana crops due to the similar appearances of the plants. Supporters of the bill are quick to dispel this.

“Industrial Hemp is grown quite differently from marijuana, said Vote Hemp’s website, www.votehemp.com. “Moreover, it is harvested at a different time than marijuana.”

Despite the insignificant amount of THC present in hemp, hemp businesses often have a hard time dispelling some of the myths and negativity surrounding the plant.

“Half of the people just ignore that [information],” said Kruse. “People walk in whispering about how everything is made from weed,” she said.

Some people do not know enough to distinguish between the two plants at all, she said. Some people think of hemp and immediately conjure up notions of smoking marijuana and getting high.

“That is totally false,” Kruse said, “there is [not enough] THC in hemp; it would never get you high.”

She explained that this is the “number one reason hemp is ignored by the general public.

Even though hemp has not been widely accepted by many Americans, its supporters are still optimistic and will quickly praise its versatility and environmental-friendliness.

“We should be using hemp for every product we make in the United States,” said Kruse.

Cody Kitaura can be reached at [email protected]