es that are now
used imprisoning nonviolent marijuana offenders, who
account for about 30% of all arrests, thus stopping the
unchecked buildup of police power. Please contact our
offices or other associated groups to get petitions to gather
signatures and help us put this important issue before the
voters in Oregon. In early October 1996 the Secretary of
States office approved the petitions for circulation. We
need to gather 73,261 registered Oregon voters signatures
by July 1998 to qualify for a vote in November 1998.
The name of our political group, which is spearheading the
OCTA is the Campaign for the Restoration and Regula-
tion of Hemp (CRRH). The CRRH is receiving assistance
in its effort to gather signatures from many interested
(continued on page 7)
Harrelson, hemp win round in court
Laws definition called too broad
LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER
Lexington, Kentucky
January 24, 1997
By Andy Mead
Herald-Leader Staff Writer
In the Commonwealth vs. Woody Harrrelson, the actor
scored an important victory yesterday.
An Eastern Kentucky judge presiding over a case involv-
ing Harrelson ruled that a portion of a state law that lumps
industrial hemp with marijuana is unconstitutional.
The ruling could be the first step toward making hemp a
legitimate crop for farmers, an idea endorsed by the Ken-
tucky Farm Bureau and others, but opposed by law en-
forcement.
But the prosecutor in the case could still be tried and
convicted.
Harrelson, who stars in The People vs. Larry Flynt, was in
Lexington in May for an international conference on in-
dustrial hemp and made a side trip to Lee County to plant
what he said were four hemp seeds.
The planting was a calculated challenge to the state law
that makes no distinction between marijuana and hemp.
Industrial hemp is a cousin of marijuana that has little of
the chemical that produces a high in users. Industrial hemp
has .3 percent or less of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the
psychoactive ingredient that produces a high. Potent mari-
juana can have 10 percent or more THC.
In the ruling filed yesterday, Lee District Judge Ralph
McClanahan II said there should be a distinction between
parts of the plant that have THC and parts that dont. The
definition of marijuana under which Harrelson was
charged is constitutionally defective due to its overbroad
application by including non-hallucinogenic plant parts,
the judge said.
Theres a judge with vision, Harrelson said yesterday in
a telephone interview from Los Angeles. I couldnt be
happier. This is a great day.
But Lee County Attorney Tom Jones said he intends to
appeal McClanahans ruling to Lee Circuit Court and
continue with Harrelsons prosecution. If convicted, the
actor faces up to a year in jail and a $500 fine.
Jones said his reading of the judges ruling is that seeds
with any THC are illegal, and that Harrelson has admitted
under oath that the seeds he planted had a small amount.
Experts say that no hemp seeds are devoid of THC.
An appeal had been expected no matter which side pre-
vailed in the constitutional question.
Charles Beale, one of Harrelsons Lexington attorneys,
said the case probably will go at least to the Kentucky
Court of Appeals. At that level, a ruling has statewide
impact.
Hemps supporters tout the plant as a source of everything
from paper to fabric to lip balm and say it could help
Kentuckys beleaguered tobacco farmers. Environmental-
ists like it because it doesnt need herbicides or pesticides
and can save trees.
But police say it would just cause marijuana enforcement
problems.
At a hearing in the Harrelson case, Kentucky State Police
Sgt. James A. Tipton, a member of the Governors Mari-
juana Strike Force, testified that if hemp were legal, farm-
ers in a financial bind might try to sneak a few marijuana
plants among the hemp stalks.
Hemp advocates say that would be unlikely because the
plants are cultivated quite differently and because the
hemp would lower the THC content of the marijuana,
making it less valuable.
Judge Ralph E. McClanahan handed down
the following ruling in Commonwealth of
Kentucky v. Woody Harrelson:
After reviewing the statutes and memo-
randa of the parties this Court finds that the
definition of marijuana contained in Ken-
tucky Revised Statutes 218A.010 (12) is con-
stitutionally defective due to its overbroad
application by including non-hallucino-
genic plant parts.... We believe the enact-
ment of (this statute) is an arbitrary exercise
of power by the General Assembly over the
lives and property of free men....
Woodys Movie
Premiere & Hemp
CENTRAL KENTUCKY NEWS-JOURNAL
Campbellsville, Kentucky
January 20, 1997
By Stan McKinney
News Editor
When Woody Harrelson arrived for the premiere of his
latest movie earlier this year, he wasnt riding in a stretch
limousine.
Instead, Harrelson created a photo opportunity for the
media gathered at the opening of The People vs. Larry
Flynt in Cincinnati. He arrived in the van which is used
daily by the Kentucky Hemp Museum.
At the wheel of the van was Craig Lee who is the director
of the Museum located on First Street in Campbellsville.
Also in the vehicle with Harrelson and his entourage was
Jennifer OBanion, a junior at Taylor County High School.
Harrelson made his way through the crowd of photogra-
phers and star watchers to the movie screening with OBan-
ion on his right arm.
On his left arm was Donna Cockrel, a Simpsonville Ele-
mentary teacher who got in trouble with the Shelby County
Board of Education after Harrleson spoke to her class last
year about industrial hemp.
Harrelson and Cockrel were both in Campbellsville late
last year for the grand opening of the Kentucky Hemp
Museum.
H-E-M-P is my connection to the movie, Lee said.
Woody went there to promote hemp and he invited me.
Harrelsons attire for the movie premiere also drew atten-
tion to him and hemp.
There was nothing unusual about his tuxedo, but complet-
ing his attire was a cap made of industrial hemp and
boasting of hemp grown in Kentucky.
Photos of Harrelson and that cap appeared in several news-
papers all across the country. Some of those photos showed
him with Cockrel, some showed him with OBanion.
OBanion said the cap attracted so much attention that
Larry Flynt ended up with one as did David Letterman who
wore one on his show the night after the premiere.
OBanions connection to hemp and the movie about Flynt
began with a speech contest.
As a member of the National Junior Horticultural Associa-
tion, OBanion was planning to attend a national conven-
tion in Dallas, Texas: Theres a speech contest during the
convention and she wanted to enter.
I needed a topic, OBanion said, Dr. Bill Fountain, a
horticulturist at UK, suggested industrial hemp.
Fountains reasoning, OBanion said, was that most
speeches would be on insecticides or something else pre-
dictable. Industrial hemp, she said, is an interesting and a
current topic.
Injunction lifted on SF Club
The San Francisco Examiner
January 8, 1997
A Superior Court judge authorized Wednesday the not-
for-profit cultivation and sale of marijuana for medical
purposes by the San Francisco Cannabis Club.
In lifting a preliminary injunction that had shut the club
since Aug. 4, Judge David Garcia said the passage of
Proposition 215, the medical marijuana initiative Cali-
fornia voters approved in November, had altered the
legal playing field.
Club founder Dennis Peron, exulting over the ruling,
said the club at 1444 Market St. will re-open Jan 15.
This is the first time in the history of the United States
that a judicial order has been issued allowing the culti-
vation and possession of marijuana, said J. David
Nick, attorney for the club.
It seems like a second step in a thousand mile jour-
ney, said Peron. It feels like democracy has pre-
vailed.
The judge made it clear that his ruling applied only to
the Cannabis Club and would have no legal force out-
side of San Francisco.
John Gordnier, senior assistant attorney general, said
the state disagrees with Garcias ruling, but declined to
say whether it would appeal.
Gordnier asked the judge to modify his ruling to explic-
itly say that clubs selling marijuana for medicinal pur-
poses cannot make a profit.
Garcia agreed, saying anyone found selling marijuana
for profit would be charged and prosecuted under Cali-
fornias drug laws.
The judge told Gordnier that despite the attorney gen-
erals objections to his ruling, the people of California
have spoken (and) I dont think you or I are going to say
that the people of California were ineffectual.
Peron and five colleagues have been indicted by an
Alameda County grand jury and face prosecution for
conspiracy to transport and sell marijuana.
Peron said that Garcias
ruling will boost the
chances for the criminal
case to be resolved in his
favor, since he has always
maintained the Cannabis
Club was a nonprofit op-
eration. Police disagree.
The club, which provided
high-quality marijuana to
people with AIDS, cancer,
and other ailments, was
shut following a raid by
state narcotics agents at
the clubs headquarters
and five other locations.
State officials said that although the club ostensibly
required a doctors prescription before someone could
buy marijuana, minors and others who had no medical
problems had little trouble obtaining pot.
Police Chief Fred Lau, whose department took a hands-
off policy toward the club when it was open, said he had
not yet been briefed on the ruling and would contact
local and state officials to see how and if enforcement
should be applied.
If what theyre doing is