The charge: Cultivation of fewer than five marijuana plants, a misdemeanor. The legal prognosis: He expects to be found guilty, setting up an appeal that will challenge the law that makes no distinction between marijuana and industrial hemp. "The statute is overly broad ... there is no rational basis for the statute," said Burl McCoy, the Lexington attorney who was on hand to represent the actor. Harrelson said the seeds he planted were hemp seeds from Europe that contain only a tiny amount of the chemical that gives marijuana its high. He and other hemp supporters say industrial hemp is an environment-friendly plant that farmers should be allowed to grow to make paper, fabric and other products. On Friday, Harrelson spoke at an international conference on industrial hemp in Lexington. Along the way to taking what could be an important step in the state's legal and agricultural history yesterday, Harrelson managed to create quite a stir in Beattyville, population about 1,100. He gave a $100 bill to Lindsey Cole, 13, who was in the street collecting for the Lee County Middle School band, and soon had the rest of the band crowding around. He went into Rose Bros. Department Store and signed autographs for everyone in sight, then did the same on the sidewalk outside. He posed for photographs with Sheriff Kilburn, Jailer Danny Townsend and several others. He also rode around town on the back of a Mercedes-Benz convertible with two young women whom he paid $2,000 for an acre of land on which to plant the hemp. There was no doubt he broke the law. That was all carefully orchestrated. Here's a recap of the crime:
Harrelson wore his usual hemp clothing, including a hat that said '100% Hemp KENTUCKY." He tilled the soil with a rusty grubbing hoe, clearing a small patch of ground in a weedy field 4 miles south of town. As he chopped friends joked that he could be arrested for impersonating a farmer. At just the right time, Joe Hickey, director of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association, called the sheriff's office on a cellular phone and reported "a gentleman planting industrial hemp." The sheriff had been told to expect the call. Kilburn arrived a few minutes later and stood over Harrelson as he placed seeds in the ground. Harrelson even obliged by handing the sheriff a couple of seeds to inspect before they were planted.
Then Kilburn told him he was under arrest.
"Normally, I would put hand cuffs on you, but I don't think we'll have too much of a problem," the sheriff said. As Harrelson was being booked, he chatted with Jailer Townsend telling him that he eats neither foods with sugar nor dairy products. "I like both of those," Townsend said. At one point, Kilburn said he had never seen Harrelson on TV then agreed with the actor that "Cheers" is a "good program." "How many Oscars have you won?" the sheriff asked. "I was feeling pretty good up un til now," said Harrelson, who hasn't won any. After posting 10 percent of the standard $2,000 bond, Harrelson was released. "Kentucky used to be the No. 1 hemp grower in the nation," he said outside the jail. "I've talked to farmers around here and they would love to have something like this."
Why did this happen in Lee County? McCoy, the attorney, said it was because Harrelson was interested in saving forests and building rural economies. "He thought this was a good area because this is an area where industrial hemp could grow very, very well and if it were legal it could make this county very well-to-do," McCoy said. The marijuana variety of Cannabis sativa grows so well in Lee County, in fact, that it has ensnared local law enforcement. Kilburn's two immediate predecessors both were convicted of drug related crimes-one for obstructing a drug investigation, the other for protecting a drug ring. McCoy said the next steps in Harrelson's legal fight--arraignment and pre-trial matters --would not require his presence. But the actor will be back in three or four months, he said, to stand trial for the crime he doesn't think should be one.