A lawmaker said Monday that he'll introduce legislation in 1996 to legalize the growing of hemp in Colorado.
Sen. Lloyd Casey, D-Northglenn, got only one vote for a similar bill in the Senate Agriculture Committee earlier this year, but he said he intends to try again because of hemp's potential agricultural value.
His proposal will call for a two-year pilot project to prove that industrial hemp can be grown safely. In the third year, wider use would be permitted, but sill under strict licensing. One 40-acre crop would be allowed in the first year.
In addition to its better-known use as marijuana, hemp can be used to make such material as cloth and paper. Cookies made of hemp flour were served to lawmakers during hearings on the bill this year.
"We're trying to defuse the misconception that every hemp plant is high in THC (the drug tetrahydrocannabinol)," Casey said. "The fact is, they're not. There's no way you can misuse this stuff."
The Colorado Industrial Hemp Conference to support the effort will be held Dec. 9 at the University of Colorado. Casey is among the scheduled speakers.
Casey also has support from the Colorado State Grange, which passed a resolution last month noting that industrial hemp - which it says can gross from $500 to $800 an acre - saves four acres of trees for each acre planted.
Casey said his 1996 bill would make sure that only hemp plants with virtually no marijuana value may be planted. But a similar promise failed to persuade his colleagues this year as they rejected even a watered-down proposal calling only for a study.
Sen. Tilman Bishop, R-Grand Junction, vice chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he hasn't seen the bill but wouldn't be optimistic about its chances.
"I'm not sure there has been a change of people's thinking," Bishop said. "I'd say chances of its getting through are extremely poor."