Majority of Americans support legalization of hemp in U.S.

By Arrianne Talma
Source: redalertpolitics.com

It looks like there may be a possibility that legalization will succeed in the US – of hemp that is.

A recent HuffPost/You Gov poll shows that 56 percent of Americans support legalizing the non-drug version of the cannabis plant, more than double of the 24 percent of Americans who oppose it. Twenty percent are unsure if it should be legalized or not.

Even politicians on both sides of the aisle support the legalization of hemp. A bipartisan group of senators, including Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), introduced an amendment to the farm bill last week that would make it legal for farmers to grow the plant domestically. The proposed amendment comes after the two Kentucky senators succeeded in making the plant legal for cultivation in their own state.

Moreover, both Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) are open to the legalization. The bipartisan amendment would have to pass Leahy’s committee before the full body could vote on it.

While hemp is used in many common products and cannot be used to make drugs, it’s similarity to federally banned marijuana may be a reason why many legislators are hesitant to allow farmers to grow it domestically, even though the poll showed that 47 percent of Americans think it should be legal to grow marijuana.

Instead, many manufacturers import hemp from Canada and other countries to make clothes, jewelry, soap and many other hemp products.

“I firmly believe that American farmers should not be denied an opportunity to grow and sell a legitimate crop simply because it resembles an illegal one,” Wyden said in a press release last June, after introducing a similar amendment on hemp legalization that failed to make it to a vote. 

This time around, however, Wyden is more confident “that if grassroots support continues to grow and Members of Congress continue to hear from voters then common sense hemp legislation can move through Congress in the near future.”