Source: thedailychronic.net
HONOLULU, HI — Hawaii lawmakers have a message for their counterparts in Congress: end the federal prohibition of hemp.
Hawaii’s House Concurrent Resolution 3, nearing the final phase of approval by lawmakers, encourages Congress and the President to re-state that the intent of the Federal Uniform Controlled Substances Act, the federal law banning marijuana, is not to prohibit the production of industrial hemp.
The resolution, which has already been adopted in the House, was recommended for passage by a Senate committee Wednesday.
If adopted by the Senate, certified copies of the resolution will be sent to the President of the United States, Majority Leader of the United States Senate, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and each member of Hawaii’s Congressional delegation.
The sale of hemp products is legal in the United States, but the cultivation of hemp is banned by the federal government.
“Thousands of consumer products are made with hemp, yet it is illegal to grow it in the United States,” said Rep. Cynthia Thielen, a sponsor of the resolution.
All hemp must be imported, with the majority of the hemp sold in the United States coming from Canada and Europe.
A hemp bill, House Bill 154 HD2, which would allow the Board of Agriculture to establish a two year industrial hemp research and biofuel crop pilot program, is currently progressing through the legislature.
The bill passed unanimously on the floor of the House earlier this month, and has been transferred to the Senate.
Legislation has been introduced in Congress to allow the commercial production of hemp in the United States, the only industrialized nation in the world to prohibit the cultivation of hemp.
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