Global Creations in Haleiwa offers clothing and other items made from industrial hemp. Photos by Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin

Just ask Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and the people over at Nike and Adidas. They're sold on the stuff.

Trouble is, it's illegal to grow hemp in the United States. And law enforcement officials want to keep it that way.

The law stems from the 1930s when marijuana was outlawed as an illicit drug. Hemp production, once a mainstay of domestic agriculture, ground to a halt. Today, the United States imports hemp fiber, oil, seeds and stalks from China, Hungary, Chile, Germany and England.

The U.S. government doesn't distinguish between hemp for industrial use and psychoactive marijuana, which has a higher percentage of intoxicating THC.

But it's only a matter of time, proponents say.

The state of Vermont has passed a bill to look into hemp cultivation. Colorado has legislation pending. Wisconsin and Kentucky are close. And Hawaii's Legislature has authorized a study of hemp as an agricultural crop.

"It's getting tongues wagging, heads turning and perhaps some minds are changing," said Rep. David Tarnas (D, South Kohala-North Kona,) who co-authored the Hawaii resolution with Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R, Kailua-Kaneohe.)

"There's still a great deal of confusion, but a great deal of interest as well," he said.

Tarnas - intrigued by hemp since attending a University of Hawaii conference three years ago - said the crop could be grown and processed using the existing plantation system, then distributed to cottage industries that make local products.

"We could be the pioneers in the U.S. hemp industry and establish a good marketing niche," Tarnas said. "I want Hawaii to be at the front and make the money. Frankly, I see this as becoming a major industrial crop worldwide."

Erwin "Bud" Sholts of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture agrees.

"This whole effort is being driven by some very powerful interests," he said, pointing to a membership roster of the North American Industrial Hemp Council that includes International Paper Co., Inland Container, Masonite Ltd. and other corporate giants.

They have joined academic and agricultural leaders in asking the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to give them access to hemp for research and development.

Tarnas is urging Hawaii landowners who want to grow hemp to seek a license from the Honolulu branch of the DEA. He said he hopes the requests will nudge the agency toward creating a process for handling permits, but believes a state licensing system is needed.

"The law enforcement community will be the last to support it," Tarnas said. "I don't expect converts overnight. I just want to get objective information on the table."

Authorities contend that hemp and marijuana are one and the same, Cannabis sativa.

The level of THC, the intoxicating element in marijuana, is typically at least 3 percent and usually higher in pot and 1 percent or less in industrial hemp.

"If it contains THC, it's marijuana," said Lenny Turlip, who oversees marijuana eradication for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

DEA agent Bob Aiu said proponents of marijuana legalization are using hemp and medicinal marijuana as levers to pry open the floodgates.

"Hemp can't take the focus off the fact that marijuana is a drug," Aiu said.

Opponents say legalizing hemp would create a regulatory nightmare and send a bad message to a generation of youth already foundering in a river of illicit drugs.

"It's really a moot point," said John Roulac, president of Hemptech, an informational network and publishing company in California. "Twenty-six countries grow hemp legally. In those countries, if you plant hemp, you make money. If you plant marijuana, you go to jail ... They grow thousands and thousands of acres of hemp around the world. If there was a drug problem with industrial hemp, the DEA would be splashing that all over."

The pro-hemp movement is linked with the marijuana legalization movement in many people's minds because most supporters of legalization are also bullish on hemp. But the hemp coalition has a broader base.

Backers are projecting hemp will be a $1 billion global industry by 2000. Worldwide retail sales of hemp totaled $75 million last year, excluding China, Roulac said.

Figures from China are difficult to obtain. But the potential there is staggering, he said.

Roulac recommends that Hawaii phase in hemp production by producing seeds and oil for the nutritional market.

"You just take soybean equipment and you're in business," he said. "You can make a substitute for tofu."

The push for hemp cultivation has gotten a big boost in Kentucky from actor Woody Harrelson, who will go on trial Oct. 25 for planting industrial hemp seeds.

He intends to be convicted and appeal the case as far as he can, using court proceedings to educate people that "hemp is not marijuana," said Joe Hickey, executive director of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association, founded in 1942.

"Woody has been able to get the eye of the camera on this issue, which has been lacking," Hickey said.

Harrelson, a co-star on the former television series "Cheers," was arrested June 1 in Kentucky after planting four hemp seeds in a staged event. He is charged with pot cultivation, a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to a year in jail.

Farmers in Kentucky are excited about growing hemp because they believe it will allow more people to return to the land. And because hemp is too bulky to be shipped long distances for processing, they think it will support local industries, such as fiberboard, paper products and ceiling tiles. Some plan to grow organic tomatoes and corn with hemp because it doesn't require pesticides.

Hickey said hemp is more drought tolerant than many other crops, but it needs as much fertilizer as corn or tobacco, unless old cultivation methods are used that leave substantial amounts of the plants in the field as mulch.

As to the worry that pot growers will plant psychoactive cannabis with the hemp, Hickey said: "If you mix the two crops, it's going to be the best marijuana eradication program that hit the earth" because the hemp pollination would ruin the potency of the pot.