Source: tricities.com
Jim Politis, with the Virginia Industrial Hemp Coalition, holds hemp stalks as he waits to adress the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources committee at the General Assembly Building in Richmond Wednesday. HB1277, presented by Delegate Joseph R. Yost, R-Giles, allowing for production of industrail hemp, later passed the committee.
RICHMOND, Va. — A House panel on Wednesday passed legislation that would allow industrial hemp to be grown in Virginia.
"If you look at the potential economic advantages that industrial hemp would provide for the state, particularly the Southside and the Southwest, it could be an economic boon in terms of the amount of research we could do on it," said Delegate Joseph R. Yost, R-Montgomery, the measure's sponsor.
House Bill 1277, which cleared the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources by a 13-7 vote, would direct the Department of Agriculture and Consumer services to establish an industrial hemp research program and relevant regulations in the commonwealth.
Last year, the federal Farm Bill had allowed universities and state Departments of Agriculture to grow hemp for research purposes.
"Virginia has a long history of safe industrial hemp production, with the first two drafts of the Declaration of Independence written on hemp paper," Yost said.
"One acre of industrial hemp produces the same amount of paper pulp that 4 acres of forest does. Industrial hemp production would create jobs and economic development, particularly in rural areas in Virginia. Should federal regulations allow for commercial production in the future, this bill would ensure that we are ready to move forward in Virginia," he said.
Bryan Porter, commonwealth's attorney in Alexandria, said that the Virginia Association of Commonwealth's Attorneys does not oppose the aims of the bill but is concerned with its impact on law enforcement agencies.
"The way industrial hemp is designed in the bill, it refers to a particular level of THC and says that anyone who is a licensed grower and possesses industrial hemp cannot be prosecuted for the possession of marijuana," Porter said. "Prosecutors are concerned that this might have an effect on the backdoor-unintended consequence of legalizing marijuana."
THC - short for tetrahydrocannabinol - is the principal psychoactive component of marijuana and hemp. Under federal law industrial hemp in the United States must have a THC amount note higher than 0.3 percent. The average concentration of cannabis for recreational use is 5 percent and often much higher.
"You don't get high from industrial hemp," Yost said.
George Ogburn, who became a hemp researcher after a roadside accident in 2008 left him permanently injured, told the committee of the industrial advantages of the hemp plant.
"Between 85 to 95 percent of things in the world today could be made out of hemp. In China, they make cars out of hemp. Houses made out of hemp will take away asthma. There are millions of things that hemp does and it is a multi trillion-dollar business," Ogburn said.
Jason Amatucci, founder of the Virginia Industrial Hemp Coalition, said he was recently contacted by a Germany-based company interested in building a hemp manufacturing plant in Virginia.
"Jobs are ready to go into Virginia immediately once we can get this going," Amatucci said.
Yost's proposal is heading to the House floor. Similar legislation is pending in the state Senate.
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