Pubdate: Sun, 18 Nov 2012
Source: Daily Independent (Ashland, KY)
Copyright: 2012 The Daily Independent, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.dailyindependent.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1573

NOT SO RADICAL

Support for Industrial Hemp Has Moved into Mainstream

Voter approval in Colorado and Washington of ballot initiatives to 
legalize marijuana has encouraged Kentuckians to increase their 
efforts to bring industrial hemp back to a state where it was once a 
major cash crop. If Colorado and Washington are blazing a path for 
the legalization of marijuana, they want Kentucky to be a national 
leader in the legalization of industrial hemp.

There is no serious effort in Kentucky to legalize marijuana, mind 
you, but the same federal laws that ban the growing of marijuana also 
outlaw industrial hemp, a first cousin of pot in the plant kingdom. 
Despite the passage of the ballot initiatives in Washington and 
Colorado, it will take a change in those federal laws for marijuana 
to be legalized for recreational use in those two and any other 
states, just as it would to legalize industrial hemp in Kentucky.

Nevertheless, support for industrial hemp is growing in Kentucky led 
by two popular Republican politicians, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and state 
Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer.

The Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission met for the first time in a 
decade Wednesday. At the meeting, Comer - a farmer and former member 
of the Kentucky House who became state agriculture commissioner at 
the first of the year - said passing hemp legislation will be his top 
priority in next year's General Assembly.

"We can't let our feet drag on this," Comer told a dozen commission 
members and an overflow crowd of onlookers. "We can't let the General 
Assembly say, 'Well we want to create a task force to study it.' By 
that time ... this will be another thing that the Kentucky General 
Assembly has loafed around on and let slip away."

Comer was a strong supporter of industrial hemp during his successful 
2011 campaign for agriculture commissioner, when he was the only 
Republican elected to statewide office.

At the same meeting, it was announced that Paul, who has co-sponsored 
federal legislation to remove restrictions on hemp cultivation, is 
donating $50,000 from his political action committee to the hemp 
commission. That donation is being matched by Dr. Bronner's Magic 
Soaps, a natural soap manufacturer that uses organic hemp oil in its products.

Support for the legalization of industrial hemp is far from universal 
in Kentucky, led by law enforcement officials and antidrug advocates 
who say it is difficult to tell industrial hemp and marijuana apart 
when growing, and hemp crops could easily mask pot crops.

Maj. Anthony Terry, commander of the Kentucky State Police Special 
Enforcement Troop and a member of the hemp commission member, said 
after the meeting that law enforcement continues to have reservations 
about legalizing hemp. "We're not supportive of it at this point," Terry said.

Comer said the agriculture department wants to work with law 
enforcement. "There's nothing to hide," he said. "This crop has 
suffered from false stereotypes and misperceptions for years and years."

Kentucky once was a leading producer of industrial hemp, a tall, 
leafy plant with a multitude of uses that has been outlawed for 
decades because of its association with marijuana. The plant can be 
used to make paper, biofuels, clothing, lotions and other products. 
At the meeting, commission members passed around an automobile 
armrest made of hemp.

Those seeking to legalize the plant argue that it would create a new 
crop for farmers, replacing a hemp supply now imported from Canada 
and other countries. During World War II, the U.S. government 
encouraged farmers to grow hemp for the war effort because other 
industrial fibers were in short supply. But the crop hasn't been 
grown in the U.S. since the 1950s when the federal government moved 
to classify hemp as a controlled substance because it's related to marijuana.

But the winds of change are blowing in Kentucky. For many years, the 
late Gatewood Galbraith - a Lexington lawyer who was perennial but 
unsuccessful candidate for governor and other offices - was the 
state's most vocal supporter of hemp, but with Paul and Comer joining 
in the effort, hemp has moved into the political mainstream.

Comer said he wants Kentucky farmers to be planting hemp by 2014, but 
he recognizes that would require federal approval. "We will only do 
this in Kentucky if the United States Congress and the federal 
government give us permission to do this," he said.

To date, Paul's effort to legalize industrial hemp have gotten 
nowhere in Congress.

We are not as certain of the commercial value of hemp as Comer and 
other hemp advocates supporters are. Many of the products once made 
from hemp now use synthetic fibers. For example, we can't imagine 
rope made of hemp replacing today's ropes using synthetic fibers.

Nevertheless, the value of hemp as a cash crop should be determined 
by the marketplace, not by politicians in Washington. If states like 
Kentucky want to legalize industrial hemp, they should be allowed to do so.

As for marijuana, well attitudes are also changing about it. Just ask 
the folks in Colorado and Washington. But that's another issue 
separate from hemp.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom