U.S. congressmen, former CIA director to testify in support of Kentucky hemp bill

Staff Report
Source: lanereport.com


Industrial hemp is a fiber and oil seed crop with a 
wide variety of uses. Hemp fibers have been used 
to manufacture hundreds of products that include 
twine, paper, construction materials, carpeting 
and clothing.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, U.S. Reps. John Yarmuth and Thomas Massie, former Director of Central Intelligence R. James Woolsey (of the Clinton Administration), and Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer will testify next week in support of an industrialized hemp bill.

The Senate Agriculture Committee will hear the testimony Monday, Feb. 11 at 11 a.m. in Room 131 of the Capitol Annex in Frankfort. Senate Bill 50, sponsored by Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, establishes a framework to re-introduce industrial hemp into Kentucky’s agri-economy if and when the federal government acts to legalize it.

Immediately following the vote on SB 50, the group will move to Room 154 of the Capitol Annex to take questions from the media.

The bill has support from several groups and legislators. Its biggest critics are Operation UNITE, the Kentucky Narcotic Officers’ Association and the Kentucky Association of Chiefs of Police.

Operation UNITE said industrial hemp production in Kentucky is not economically sound, that it would impose an unnecessary financial burden on the state and could facilitate future efforts to legalize its cousin – marijuana. Police groups also say the legalization and growth of hemp in Kentucky would impede law enforcement officers’ marijuana eradication efforts, because “the plants are indistinguishable to the eye,” said Tommy Loving, executive director of the Kentucky Narcotic Officers’ Association.

The Kentucky Industrialized Hemp Commission says Kentucky has the perfect climate and soil to produce industrial hemp, and the farmers to grow it. Comer believes the crop could be a great economic boon to Kentucky.

The group recently commissioned an economic impact study to be performed by the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture. It hopes such a study could have an impact on the discussion at the federal level to legalize industrial hemp.

Caudill Seed becoming poster child for hemp legalization

By Kevin Eigelbach
Source: bizjournals.com


Pat Caudill, left, is pictured with Kentucky Agriculture 
Commissioner James Comer and Dan Caudill. The Caudill 
brothers are co-owners of Caudill Seed Co.

Louisville-based Caudill Seed Co. is quickly becoming the poster child for the legalization of hemp production in Kentucky.

The company has been featured in a CBS News report, on WDRB-TV in Louisville and in several newspaper articles, with owners Dan Caudill and Pat Caudill explaining what they think a legal hemp crop would mean for Kentucky and their company.

The two became interested in the issue when they met James Comer, now Kentucky’s Secretary of Agriculture, during his 2011 campaign for the office. Legalizing hemp to give Kentucky farmers a new revenue stream is one of Comer’s priorities.

Because it has so many hills, Kentucky has a lot of land that's only marginal for agriculture, Dan Caudill said in an interview. Hemp is an ideal crop for the state because it can grow nearly anywhere, just like tobacco.

Aside from farmers, the rest of the state would benefit if it could create hemp-processing facilities that would provide jobs, Caudill said. Hemp seeds can be processed into oil, and its tough fibers can be woven into fabrics to make clothes or entwined to make rope.

Every year, Caudill Seed imports from Brazil about 75 tractor/trailer loads of twine made from sisal that it distributes to farm retailers for bailing hay. The Caudill brothers would like to distribute rope made locally instead.

Chances of passage better than 50-50

The company expects to benefit from legalized hemp production in two ways, Dan Caudill said. It would be able to buy seed and sell it to farmers who want to grow hemp. And, it would process seed grown by Kentucky farmers and sell it to crushing companies that would extract the oil. 

Senate Bill 50, which would legalize hemp production in Kentucky if federal laws allow it, is scheduled for a hearing in front of the Senate Agriculture Committee of the Kentucky General Assembly at 11 a.m. Monday. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, a R-Ky., and U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, are scheduled to testify in favor of the bill.

Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rodney Brewer has said he opposes proposals to grow hemp in Kentucky because it’s too hard to distinguish between hemp and marijuana. The two plants are of the same species, but hemp has very little THC, which is the compound that gives marijuana users a high.

Dan Caudill feels that in spite of the opposition to the bill, the chances are better than 50-50 that the General Assembly will pass it this year.

“Most of the political people recognize the need for further diversification and the need to bring some jobs to the state,” he said.

Jim Hightower: Hemp a Common Sense Crop for America’s Common Good

By Jim Hightower
Source: noozhawk.com

Four years ago, first lady Michelle Obama picked up a shovel and made a powerful symbolic statement about America’s food and farm future: She turned a patch of White House lawn into a working organic garden.

That was a great move, earning kudos from just about everyone this side of Monsanto and the pesticide lobby. But now, as she begins another four years in the people’s mansion, the first lady is probably asking herself: “How can I top that? What can I do this time around to plant a crop of common sense in our country’s political soil that will link America’s farmers, consumers, environment and grassroots economy into one big harvest of common good?” 

Thanks for asking, Ms. Obama, and please allow me to intrude into your thoughts with a one-word suggestion: hemp. Plant a good, healthy stand of industrial hemp next to your organic garden!

This would, of course, drive the anti-drug zealots up the wall (a good place for them, I think). “Holy J. Edgar Hoover,” they’d scream, “hemp is a distant cousin of marijuana!”

Well, yes, but the industrial variety of cannabis lacks the psychoactive aspects of pot, so their hysteria is misplaced. Industrial hemp won’t make anyone high, but it certainly can make us happy, because it would deliver a new economic and environmental high for America.

Plus, hemp production is firmly rooted in American history. Question: Besides being founders of our republic, what did Thomas Jefferson and George Washington have in common? Answer: Both farmed hemp. Most of America’s founders were strong promoters of this extraordinarily useful agricultural crop, with Jefferson declaring it to be “of first necessity ... to the wealth and protection of the country.”

The first draft of our Constitution was written on hemp paper. “Old Ironsides” was powered by sails of hemp cloth. As late as World War II, the government urgently pushed farmers to grow the crop as part of a “Hemp for Victory” program.

So why are American farmers today prohibited from producing this patriotic, profitable, pesticide-free plant? 

Political nuttiness. Most recently, in a frenzy of reefer madness, U.S. drug police decided that President Dick Nixon’s Controlled Substance Act of 1970 not only outlawed marijuana, but also its non-narcotic cousin, industrial hemp. If ignorance is bliss, they must’ve been ecstatic, yet their nuttiness remains the law of our land today.

While our nation is the world’s biggest consumer of hemp products (from rope to shampoo, building materials to food), the mad masters of our insane “drug war” have lumped hemp and marijuana together as “Schedule 1 controlled substances” — making our Land of the Free the world’s only industrialized country that bans farmers from growing this benign, profitable, job-creating and environmentally beneficial plant.

Thus, the U.S.A. is consuming millions of dollars’ worth of products made from hemp, that hemp comes from producers in other countries, because our farmers aren’t allowed to grow it in the U.S.A. and reap the economic benefits here at home.

The good news, though, is that a wave of sanity is now wafting across America. In Colorado, for example, farmer Michael Bowman and Denver hemp advocate Lynda Parker helped pass Amendment 64 in last fall’s election. While it legalizes personal pot use, which got all the media attention, it also directs the legislature to set up a program for “the cultivation, processing and sale of industrial hemp.”

Bowman now hopes to be the first American farmer in generations to plant a legal crop of it. Appropriately enough, he hopes to do so on April 30 — the 80th birthday of family-farmer hero and hemp champion Willie Nelson.

Even red states like Kentucky are on the move. Its Republican ag commissioner, backed by its Chamber of Commerce, is campaigning to legalize hemp farming there, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is co-sponsoring a national bill with Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden to take hemp off the controlled substance list.

As Bowman puts it: “Can we just stop being stupid?” 

To help move us in that direction, he’s seeking 100,000 signatures on a online petition requesting that President Barack Obama include the words “industrial hemp” in his Feb. 12 State of the Union speech. I’m sure the president would appreciate my advice on this, so I suggest he say: “First thing tomorrow morning, Michelle and I are going to give a symbolic jumpstart to the development of a thriving hemp industry in America by planting a stand of it on the White House lawn.”

To sign Bowman’s petition, click here to go to the White House website.

— Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker and author of Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow. Click here to contact him, follow him on Twitter: @JimHightower, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.

Cannabis Farming Has Kentucky Republicans Seeing Economic Boost

By Margaret Newkirk 
Source: bloomberg.com


Kentucky State Police and Kentucky National Guard troops wade through 
acres of dense Chinese silvergrass as they search for marijuana plants 
near Barbourville, Kentucky.

Kentucky Republicans and business leaders are promoting an unlikely way to boost the state’s economic development: Grow cannabis.

Kentucky leaders want their state to become the king of hemp, a plant that comes from the same species as marijuana, though doesn't contain enough of the intoxicating ingredient to cause a high.

They want to help state farmers overcome the federal government’s treatment of hemp as an illegal drug, and produce it on an industrial scale, for use in items such as soap, horse bedding, building materials and auto body parts. Kentucky is one of at least five states, including Indiana and Vermont, where lawmakers have introduced measures allowing hemp farming.

The Kentucky effort is supported by legislative leaders, the state chamber of commerce, Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul and agricultural commissioner James Comer, a Republican who campaigned on bringing the crop to his state.

“It could produce thousands of jobs,” Comer said in an interview.“Industrial hemp is totally different than marijuana. It should be treated like corn or soybeans.”

U.S. retail sales of products with imported hemp were more than $452 million in 2011, according to an estimate by the Hemp Industries Association, based in Summerland, California.

All One God Faith Inc., a closely held company in Escondido, California, that markets Dr. Bronner’s soaps, is considering expanding to Kentucky if hemp is grown there, said David Bronner, the company’s chief executive officer. The soaps contain hemp.

Passing Laws

Since 1996, at least eight states have passed laws removing legal barriers to hemp farming, according to a report last year by the Congressional Research Service in Washington. Colorado voters in November signed off on hemp farming.

Even in those states, anyone who wants to grow hemp needs a permit from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said Dawn Dearden, an agency spokeswoman. Dearden said she didn’t know when the agency, which doesn't distinguish between hemp and marijuana, last issued a permit and referred a question on the matter to the Justice Department. A telephone message left with the department’s press office wasn't immediately returned.

The hemp association is aware of only one DEA permit issued, for a now-ended research project in Hawaii, said Eric Steenstra, the group’s executive director.

Importing Hemp

U.S. businesses import hemp, usually from Canada and China. The plant is also grown in Europe, and is approaching harvest now in the Southern hemisphere.

Hemp has been a source of oilseed and fiber for centuries, according to the congressional report. It was grown in the U.S. from the colonial period until the mid-1800s, when cotton became more competitive as a clothing fabric. More than 30 countries grow hemp as an agricultural commodity.

The Kentucky State Police oppose growing hemp, saying fields could be used to hide marijuana and that pot growers will claim their plants are hemp, requiring state police to prove otherwise in overburdened state labs.

“It would be a nightmare,” said Trooper Michael Webb, a police spokesman. “You can’t look at the plants and tell the difference between the two.”

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, a Democrat, has said law enforcement concerns must be satisfied before he would support allowing hemp.

Cannabis Plant

The cannabis plants used for hemp typically look different from those cultivated for marijuana. Hemp grows taller and in a single main stalk with few leaves. Marijuana usually is bushy with leaves and branches to promote flowers and buds, according to the research service report.

The chemistry of the plants is more distinct. Marijuana typically contains about 10 percent tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which gives users a high, compared to less than 1 percent THC in hemp, according to the congressional service report.

A smoker would need a hemp joint the size of a telephone pole to get high, said Michael Bowman, a wheat farmer in Colorado. Bowman, 53, said he plans to plant hemp on 100 acres in April -- without a permit. He said he doesn't anticipate being prosecuted.

The law restricting hemp farming is the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. Those who raise hemp without a DEA permit risk as much as 20 years in prison and forfeiture of their property, according to federal guidelines.

Permit Application

An application for a DEA hemp permit is identical to asking for permission to grow pot.

Representative David Monson, a Republican in the North Dakota House and a wheat farmer, is among those who have unsuccessfully sought permission.

In 1999, Monson watched hemp growing across the Canada border, at a time when a disease was ruining wheat and barley. Rotating those crops with fast-growing, disease-resistant hemp was a way to fight the blight, Monson said in an interview.

North Dakota created a hemp farm licensing program. Two farmers applied, including Monson. Both got state permits and applied unsuccessfully to the DEA. The application process included a criminal background check and a questionnaire that asked questions like “Where are you going to sell this drug?” and “Will you have a 12-foot high chain link fence with guards and razor wire?”

Monson said he planted no hemp.

“I wasn’t going to do it without a permit,” he said. “They could threaten to take my farm.”

Comer and Bronner said that as more states approve hemp production, the DEA may be forced to change its approach.

“It’s becoming increasingly ridiculous that the non-drug form of cannabis is still caught up in this prohibition,” said Bronner, 39, in an interview.

Industrial Hemp Cooperative Gets First Corporate Member

BY CAMPBELL WOOD

Source: bizlex.com

Roger Ford, CEO of Patriot Bioenergy Corp., David Hadland, president of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association, and Craig Lee, a member of Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission

Lexington, KY - Patriot Bio Energy recently became the first corporate member of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association, and the company aims to prove that industrial hemp is useful for the coal fields of Kentucky.

Roger Ford, CEO of Patriot, said that by mixing the woody stalk of hemp with coal, polluting emissions can be reduced while maintaining a high Btu value, the measure of heat that drives energy production at coal-fired power plants. There’s also the role industrial hemp crops could play in reclamation of mined coal fields while boosting the region’s economy with manufacturing opportunities. Hemp has a diverse portfolio of products, including paper, fiberboard, horse-bedding, textiles, paint, fuel, and more.

“I have 50 pounds of hemp horse-bedding in storage,” said Ford. The horse bedding came from north of the border where industrial hemp is a legal crop for Canadian farmers.

“We’re having conversations with a couple of companies to provide coal,” he said.

Ford is no stranger to the coal industry, having been a coal broker for about six years. He said that, in private talks, certain coal industry leaders have shown interest in hemp as a reclamation crop as well as biomass for a cleaner burn.

“We’re just not at a place where we want to put any names out,” said Ford, regarding the coal companies that will be providing coal samples and watching with interest as the laboratory tests unfold.

Ford said testing will be done at Mineral Labs in Salyersville, Ky. Mineral Labs conducted an earlier study for Patriot that found industrial hemp to have a Btu value between 8,700 and 9,000, a value that is greater than that of western U.S. coal and a little less than eastern Kentucky coal, said Ford. The new round of testing will be done on the combination of coal and hemp.

“We have to develop our protocols — different ratios of coal to hemp and how it is blended, whether straight-up grinding it as powder or briquetting it,” Ford said.

Patriot is funding the research at Mineral Labs. Ford expects the report by mid-March. That report will give Btu values at different ratios of hemp to coal, along with an analysis of NOx (nitrogen oxides), SOx (sulfur oxides) and other emissions.

“We expect to utilize the report to expand the research and lay the foundation for scale-up to commercial production for power plants and other end-users,” Ford said.

Another scenario that Ford envisions for industrial hemp in Kentucky is the provision of horse-bedding and energy to horse farms.

“Use of hemp as horse bedding is straightforward and has been done,” said Katherine Andrews, who consults with Ford on hemp research. Andrews, who currently resides at a Bluegrass horse farm, has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and was cofounder of the Joint Bioenergy Institute at UC Berkley, where she served as vice president of strategic integration.

“The next step, conversion of the hemp-manure mixture to methane, is certainly viable, has been optimized and published as recently as 2012 by a Finnish group,” Andrews said.

The methane fuels power generation. But Andrews also sees a bigger picture for hemp.

“Besides material for co-combustion with coal,” Andrews said, “we can produce biodiesel from the seed oil, which can be used as is or converted to jet fuel. Likewise, the whole plant can be used as a feedstock for fermentation of ethanol or longer chain fuels — gasoline, jet fuel, the list goes on — with huge markets associated. The ability to capture even small percentages of markets of this scale would be a tremendous boost to Kentucky.”

Interest in bringing industrial hemp back to Kentucky agriculture and the state’s economy continues to spread, especially with the wholehearted advocacy of James Comer, Kentucky’s commissioner of agriculture. Comer called industrial hemp a “no brainer” for Kentucky. Two hurdles stand in the way of industrial hemp returning to Kentucky agriculture. One is at the state level, and the other at the federal.

On the state level, Senate Bill 50 provides procedures that would allow and facilitate industrial hemp cultivation, if there is the requisite change at the federal level.

“I’m encouraged by the bipartisan support of that bill,” said Ford, speaking of SB 50. “The endorsement of it by the Kentucky Chamber is a good sign for its passage. Regardless, whether it passes or not, we will continue our research. It needs to be done to show the viability of the crop.”

Industrial hemp, though not a drug crop like its relative, marijuana, is still illegal by federal law, though it was once a widespread and useful crop in the United States, even grown by some of the country’s founders. It was last grown in Kentucky as part of the war effort during World War II.

“It’s time for the federal government to change the law and allow the great opportunities that industrial hemp offers to rural economies,” Ford said. He also said he’s encouraged by the bipartisan support in Kentucky’s Senate delegation.

“I’d like to see the entire Kentucky delegation behind it,” he said. “I’d like to see Senator McConnell, Congressman Rogers, Congressman Whitfield, Congressman Guthrie — I’d like to see them all publicly stand by this and go on record in support of it.”

Senator Rand Paul, Congressman John Yarmuth, Congressman Andy Barr, and Congressman Thomas Massie have all stated public support for legalizing industrial hemp.

Getting hemp over the hump of legalization

By Scott Wartman
Source: cincinnati.com

Industrial hemp could give state huge economic lift, supporters say, but also faces huge obstacles

The wide level of support in Kentucky for industrial hemp has raised hopes that the commonwealth could become one of the first and biggest producers of the crop in the United States.

First, though, the federal government would have to make it legal, and the General Assembly would need to pass legislation to regulate industrial hemp production.

Kentucky politicians at the federal and state level think both approvals could come soon.

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has told state officials that he will lobby for a federal waiver of the federal ban on industrial hemp for Kentucky if the General Assembly passes legislation on hemp production.

Paul and Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer have led the charge to make Kentucky the center of industrial hemp production that it was in the 19th Century.

“Sen. Paul came to my office last week, and we had a good long talk,” Comer said. “He’s very passionate about this issue. If we can pass this bill in Frankfort, he and I and Congressmen Massie and Yarmuth are going to go to work and meet with the Obama administration to get a waiver for a pilot project.

“Here’s a situation where we have a crop that is making huge impressions economically all over the world, because more and more uses are being invented every day. Companies like Toyota make auto parts out of industrial hemp instead of plastic.... Here’s an opportunity for Kentucky to be a leader.”

State Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, told the Associated Press that he intends to bring his industrial hemp bill up for a vote in the Senate Agriculture Committee he co-chairs: “I feel very good about getting through the Senate Ag Committee. I feel very good (about its prospects) in the full Senate.”

The state measure enjoys support from both Republicans and Democrats. Comer said he’s confident the Senate has enough votes to pass Hornback’s bill and thinks he has enough support in the House as well.

State Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, a former U.S. marshal and jailer, has supported industrial hemp legislation since he first joined the state Senate in 2008.

“Each year I’ve noticed more support for it,” Schickel said. “Now, with the new commissioner of agriculture supporting it and the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee introducing the bill, I think there’s more support than ever. Kentucky needs to position itself so that when the federal ban is lifted, we can take full economic advantage quickly.”

Concerns linger

Some lawmakers in the House, however, have expressed reservations. Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo said recently it would be difficult to pass the bill since it doesn’t have the support of the Kentucky State Police.

State Rep. Tom McKee, D-Cynthiana, said he shares some law enforcement concerns about the bill and said nothing can be done until the federal government lifts the ban on hemp. McKee chairs the House Agriculture Committee and said he will allow the bill to come up for a vote. But each time an industrial hemp bill has come before the committee, the House Agriculture Committee has voted it down.

“A lot of people in the General Assembly House and Senate have a lot of questions not answered, including the viability and what it takes to grow the crop and what the profitability of the crop is,” McKee said. “It’s too soon to say what will happen.”

Kentucky State Police officials have said legalizing industrial hemp will make identifying illegal marijuana crops harder.

Hemp and marijuana come from the same plant species but have genetic differences. Industrial hemp has trace amounts of THC, the chemical that gives marijuana users a high. Both plants look identical, though, and require lab testing to determine which is which, said Sgt. Rick Saint-Blancard, KSP spokesman.

“It presents the burden of proof on law enforcement that could bring the judicial system to a halt,” Saint-Blancard said. “Our lab is not equipped for that. The chemical testing start-up cost is extremely high.”

Businesses support hemp

Despite law enforcement concerns, many organizations have endorsed the legislation for industrial hemp. In the past month, the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and the Kentucky County Judge-executives Association endorsed Hornback’s legislation.

The industrial hemp industry creates too many job opportunities to ignore, said Bryan Sunderland, spokesman with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. Sunderland did say they want to see safeguards enacted to make sure the hemp crops are distinct from the illicit marijuana crops.

“The United States is the No. 1 consumer of industrial hemp, but no one can grow it in the U.S.,” Sunderland said. “That in effect means if you buy those products, you contribute to the national trade deficit. There are products that can be made, and there is money to made growing it.”

Comer and other supporters of industrial hemp say the crop would cross-pollinate and dilute the illegal crop.

Hornback’s bill will get a hearing in the state Senate on Feb. 11, and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is expected to speak.

“We can be the Silicon Valley of industrial hemp,” Comer said. “It can lead to a manufacturing revolution in Kentucky because so many products can be made from this crop.”

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell In Favor of Hemp!

Hemp Legislation in Kentucky Gets a Major New Supporter

Source: votehemp.com

On Thursday, we received an email with the subject line "Are you sitting down?" You can never tell if it will be a good thing or a bad thing. It this case it was some amazing news. The email let us know about an upcoming statement on industrial hemp production in Kentucky by U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and it was expected to be positive. Less than an hour later, a statement was posted on the front page of Republican leader Senator McConnell's official web site:

"After long discussions with Senator Rand Paul and Commissioner James Comer on the economic benefits of industrialized hemp, I am convinced that allowing its production will be a positive development for Kentucky's farm families and economy. Commissioner Comer has assured me that his office is committed to pursuing industrialized hemp production in a way that does not compromise Kentucky law enforcement's marijuana eradication efforts or in any way promote illegal drug use. The utilization of hemp to produce everything from clothing to paper is real and if there is a capacity to center a new domestic industry in Kentucky that will create jobs in these difficult economic times that sounds like a good thing to me."

Sen. McConnell's statement of support for hemp production in Kentucky is a major boost for Commissioner Comer's legislation in the Kentucky General Assembly. Senate Bill 50 will be heard in the Senate Agriculture Committee on Feb. 11, 2013. In unprecedented bipartisan cooperation, U.S. Representatives John Yarmuth (D-KY 3rd District) and Thomas Massie (R-KY 4th) are confirmed to testify alongside U.S. Senator Rand Paul in support of the bill. Sen. Paul cosponsored legislation in the Senate with Sen. Wyden of Oregon in the 112th Congress and they are expected to introduce legislation again very soon. Rep. Massie will be introducing legislation previously sponsored by Rep. Paul in the House likely within the coming week.

Juliet Eilperin, author of the front page Washington Post story "Hemp legalization effort gathers steam," asked the this question on Twitter: Now that Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) has endorsed legalizing #hemp, isn't the debate over now? The debate isn't over until Congress passes legislation ending the federal ban on hemp farming but Sen. McConnell's support was certainly a game changer.

In addition to the legislation in Kentucky and other states this legislative season, Vote Hemp will also continue to work with Congress to get the Industrial Hemp Farming Act passed to enable the farming and processing of hemp in the U.S. once again. Please be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up with the latest on this quickly developing issue!