Source: care2.com
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is backing a bill that would remove hemp farming from controlled substances bans and reclassify it as an “agricultural commodity”. This could be a boon to the industry and his chances of reelection.
“The Kentucky senator announced on Monday he will pursue a bill that would make states the primary regulators of hemp, in consultation with the Department of Agriculture,” reports Burgess Everett at Politico, ”Hemp growth was once outlawed in the United States, but McConnell worked in 2014 to write a new law allowing pilot programs for it. Since then, Kentucky has become the state with the third-most acres of hemp growth.”
Hemp is a variety of the cannabis plant that is specifically grown for industrial uses. Unlike the psychoactive effects of its sister, marijuana, hemp cannot produce an illicit high.
Indeed, studies have shown that the average amount of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis that produces the psychoactive effects, in hemp is so low that it would not even be detectable in a urine test if someone where to ingest it.
Many nations actively cultivate a hemp industry, including China, whose overall marijuana and hemp industry seems to be on the rise. Nevertheless, in the United States hemp is still classified as an illicit substance even though some states, like California, have legalized its production.
Part of the rationale for that ban is that hemp is indistinguishable from marijuana at first glance, making it difficult for law enforcement.
McConnell has a history of pushing for hemp de-regulation and has previously overseen policy changes to relax rules on hemp.
The proposed “Hemp Farm Act of 2018″ would go further than that and, under the wing of the omnibus farming bill currently waiting in Congress, would legalize hemp as an agricultural commodity. It would also allow researchers to apply for grants from the Department of Agriculture.
McConnell has also signaled that he wants this legislation to be a bipartisan effort, and with many Democrats on record as supporting hemp, this puts the legislation on good footing.
McConnell is up for re-election in 2020 and is hotly tipped to run again. Hemp legalization could be a significant economic boost for the senator’s home state, which is currently running a pilot hemp scheme into hemp production and its industrial applications.
It’s undeniable that hemp legalization would be a solid win for the senator if he does seek his seventh term in office.
Hemp, of course, is popular among environmentalists. They point to it as an efficient, easily-sourced and green industrial material that gives a lot of bang for its buck. As we previously explored at Care2, it generates, ”up to 25 tons of construction-grade hurd fiber per acre.” That’s a good yield for a relatively small amount of resources.
Hemp is also quite versatile in that it can be used to make rope, clothes, food, various papers, textiles and even plastics. While biofuels have fallen out of favor, often for legitimate reasons, hemp is also a candidate for a biodiesel.
The timing of this push toward legalization is interesting in another sense, though.
Prior to the Trump years and Jeff Sessions taking the reigns of the Justice Department, the Obama administration oversaw a gradual loosening of marijuana restrictions, which many campaigners saw as the groundwork for eventually declassifying marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug.
Sessions has revived the war on drugs and is now actively working to attack state laws that allow for marijuana production. That isn’t popular with most young people and, even Republicans now poll in favor of decriminalization.
That Kentucky’s Senator Mitch McConnell would quietly touch on this issue via hemp legalization is perhaps a small indication that even Republican lawmakers feel that reform is long past due.
Hemp legalization looks as though it will have a relatively easy time in Congress, and campaigners will no doubt be ready to lend their energy to this potentially important bit of legislation.
No comments:
Post a Comment