fates
By Matthew Beermann
■ ■ ■■ 'mm .. . —. - - ■ ...... 4 m '■■■■■ i— ■ ■. ■
Staff writer
Crime rates fell in Lincoln for the
fourth year in a row, the city announced
Tuesday.
Property crime fell 6.3 percent, and
overall crime fell 5.6 percent. Sexual
assault dropped about 22 percent. At
6L7 offenses per 100,000 people, this
year’s crime rate is the city’s lowest
since 1985.
“Two groups need to be credited for
it: the citizens of Lincoln and all of the
great police officers we have out there,”
Police ChiefTom Casady said.
He repeatedly emphasized the dedi
cated and creative work of the police
force, including techniques such as
notifying a neighborhood when a pat
tern of burglaries is identified.
“Some of these projections are
receiving national attention as examples
of quality police work,” he said.
Property crimes are often the ones
that affect the most citizens, Casady
said, so the drop has a positive effect on
the community.
“I’ve had my car broken into, too,”
he said. “I know how terrible it feels.”
Mayor Don Wesely said city police
did a good job despite limited resources.
“We’re actually understaffed over in
the police department right now, and I
hope that we can do even more when we
bring them up to full strength,” Wesely
said.
Lincoln is mirroring a laiger trend
Taking a Bite
Four areas of crime decreased in 1999. Sexual assaults decreased the most, with a drop
of 22 percent.
toward falling crime rates, Casady said.
FBI data for the first half of 1999
show a 10 percent drop in crime nation
ally. However, Nebraska as a whole has
experienced slowly rising crime rates.
“Aggravated assault and armed rob
beries have risen the most,” Casady
said. “Armed robbery concerns me the
most, both because of the danger to the
victims and because it’s been rising
steadily for years.
“Over the course of my lifetime, the
increase is simply staggering.”
Most of the decrease was a result of
the low property crime rates. Violent
crime rates actually have risen slightly.
“We’ve just experienced our first
apparent homicide of the year,” Casady
said. “And that reminds us that violent
crime has grown faster than the popula
tion over the past decade.”
Even though some violent crimes
have risen, so have criminals’ odds of
getting caught.
“Over the past decade, we’ve dou
bled the number of felony arrests,”
Casady said. “We’ve simply gotten bet
ter at catching these people.”
-LEGISLATURE
Legalization of hemp debated
ByJiUZeman ? ^
Staff writer
Hemp could be seen alongside
more traditional Nebraska crops in the
future if a proposed legislative bill is
passed.
Members of the Agriculture
Committee on Tuesday discussed
LB 1079, which would allow the culti
vation of industrial hemp.
The bill was introduced Jan. 7 by
Sen. Ed Schrock of Elm Creek and says
legal hemp must contain no more than
three-tenths of 1 percent of tetrahydro
cannabinol (THC), the chemical that
induces a high.
“I’m not interested in smoking this
product; I’m interested in growing it,”
Schrock said. ^ '■? -rr*
Currently, it is legal to buy and sell
products made from hemp, but it is ille
gal to grow it
Industrial hemp is good for the earth
because it requires little or no fertilizer
or insecticide, he said.
The United States is the only indus
trialized nation that does not allow the
cultivation of hemp, Schrock said.
“Either we’re right, and everyone
else is wrong, or everyone else is right,
and we’re wrong,” he said.
Schrock broughtfseveral items
made of hemp for the committee mem
bers to examine.
*^sis., k;- l*
i
It my wire had more time, maybe
she’d have made some brownies for the
committee,” Schiock joked.
Members of the Nebraska State
Patrol expressed concern that the legal
ization of industrial hemp would create
problems with the enforcement of drug
laws.
Currently, a sample suspected of
containing marijuana must undergo
three tests, said John Dietrich, director
of the Nebraska State Patrol crime lab.
These tests take about 30 minutes,
and none of them tests the amount of
THC in the sample.
If hemp were made legal, the lab
would need to determine whether the
sample was marijuana or industrial
hemp, by testing the. amount, of THC,
Dietrich said. . , <•
This additional test would take an
extra two hours per sample, and the lab
would need to hire more chemists,and
purchase more equipment, Dietrich
said.
The benefits of hemp far outweigh
the initial setbacks, said Thuvan Ahrens,
owner of Solstice.
Solstice, formerly Hemp Fields,
126 N. 13th St., offers many products
that are made from hemp: Clothing,
paper, linens and books are just a few,
Ahrens said.
“Uses for hemp are endless,” she
said.
Ahrens said she imports many of
her hemp products from Canada,
Hungary and China.
“It would be so much easier if hemp
could be grown in the United States,”
She sjiiid. , ; .
The committee has not voted on the
bill and will decide later whether to
advance it to the floor for debate.
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