Pubdate: Fri, 24 Aug 2012
Source: Courier-Journal, The (Louisville, KY)
Copyright: 2012 The Courier-Journal
Contact:  http://www.courier-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/97
Author: Gregory A. Hall

INDUSTRIAL HEMP DEBATE REACHES STATE FAIR AS RAND PAUL, JAMES COMER 
PUSH FOR LEGALIZATION

The effort to legalize industrial hemp reached the Kentucky State 
Fair on Thursday as U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and state Agriculture 
Commissioner James Comer promoted their efforts to eliminate federal 
restrictions that amount to a ban on growing the plant.

Comer said he will restart the Kentucky Hemp Commission to advocate 
the elimination of the federal restrictions. Paul, R-Ky., is a 
co-sponsor of a bill in the Senate that would take industrial hemp 
out of the control of the Drug Enforcement Administration so it could 
be treated like other agricultural crops. Comer also said he hopes 
for a similar bill to be filed in the Kentucky General Assembly to 
deal with the issue.

Federal government regulations control - and effectively prohibit - 
production of the non-hallucinogenic plant that can be used to make 
products including twine, paper and clothing.

Comer and other supporters have said it could help diversify 
Kentucky's agricultural economy.

"The rest of the world can grow hemp and we're not, so we're losing 
out on that product," Paul said.

But the efforts by Comer and Paul face an uphill battle in both 
legislatures. Paul and Comer made the announcement before the 
Kentucky Farm Bureau's annual country ham breakfast, which members of 
Kentucky's congressional delegation and the legislature attended.

U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd, said it's unlikely that an industrial 
hemp bill would pass in a Congress that hasn't been eager to deal 
with other weighty issues.

"In today's environment, that's the kind of thing that is way down 
the priority list," Yarmuth said, adding he believes it deserves 
consideration. "There's just too many major issues - budget issues, 
tax issues, farm bill issues, things that are going to take precedence."

Both of the agriculture committee chairmen in the Kentucky 
legislature said Thursday that they are willing to discuss the issue 
- - but stopped short of saying they'd allow a vote, something neither 
has allowed with previous industrial hemp bills.

Comer pushed for an industrial hemp bill during the regular session 
of the General Assembly that ended in April. The issue received 
hearings in the House Agriculture and Small Business Committee.

Committee Chairman Tom McKee, a Cynthiana Democrat, said he shares 
the concern, expressed in the hearings, by police that drug 
enforcement would be more difficult because of challenges in telling 
the difference between hemp and marijuana.

"I think there are a lot of unanswered questions," McKee said, 
including the profitability and marketplace for the crop. Comer said 
his commission will research the potential economic impact.
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