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Woody Harrelson plants hemp in Kentucky (fwd)




>Woody Harrelson Commits Civil Disobedience.
>Plants hemp in Kentucky and is arrested on 6/1/96.
>
>{ The following article in transcribed from the Sunday, June 2, 1996 issue
>of The Lexington Herald-Leader, page A1, by D. Paul Stanford. This is
>reproduced purely for educational use only, under the "Fair Use Doctrine"
>and is provided free of any charge: }
>
>Natural born tiller
>Harrelson plants hemp seeds to protest state law
>      by Andy Mead
>
>{ Picture of law enforcement officer standing over Harrelson as Woody
>is squating and planting the illegal seeds }
>Caption to photo: Actor Woody Harrelson planted four hemp seeds on
>land 4 miles south of Beattyville as Lee County Sheriff William "Junior"
>Kilburn watched. Harrelson was arrested on a charge of cultivation of
>fewer than five marijuana plants.
>
>{ Picture of Harrelson writing as law enforcement officer stands over him,
>with the media videotaping and photographing him in the jail }
>Caption to photo: Harrelson signed form saying he had been read his rights
>while Sheriff Kilburn booked him at the Lee County Courthouse.
>
>
>BEATTYVILLE- Sheriff William "Junior" Kilburn asked the suspect his date
>of birth, his Social Security number, then his occupation.
>
>"Actor," the suspect said.
>
>"Sir?" asked the sheriff.
>
>"Actor."
>
>They don't get many actors in the Lee County Jail, especially actors who
>go out of their way to get arrested on a Saturday afternoon.
>
>Thus was Woody Harrelson booked in Beattyville yesterday, adding civil
>disobedience to a list of credits that include "Natural Born Killers,"
>"White Men Can't Jump" and TV's "Cheers."
>
>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 inetrnational 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 town
>crowding around.
>
>He went to the 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 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 the
>four 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 handcuffs 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 niether 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
>that "Cheers" is a "good program."
>
>"How many Oscars have you won?" the sheriff asked.
>
>"I was feeling pretty good up until 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
>the 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 thing should be one.
>
>< end of article >
>