Kentucky law enforcement officials are pushing state legislators to stiffen the penalties for possession and trafficking of synthetic drugs.

Possession of synthetic drugs like flakka, a new illegal drug that has been seen in pockets across the commonwealth and has inundated Lewis County, is only a misdemeanor under state law.

No matter how many times a person is arrested or how much they're caught with, they can only be charged with a Class B misdemeanor for possession. And a first-offense trafficking charge is a Class A misdemeanor.

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Stivers Argues Exchange Provision Wasn't Meant to Allow Program As Needle Dispensary

Senate President Robert Stivers has requested an opinion from Attorney General Jack Conway on whether Louisville's needle exchange program overreaches the authority granted in the contentious heroin bill passed in the last legislative session.

During the numerous conference committee meetings about the heroin bill, the proposal for a local-option needle exchange program didn't set well with conservative legislators who believed the program would only condone more drug use.

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COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Venturing into the epicenter of Kentucky's fight against heroin addiction, national drug czar Michael Botticelli on Thursday touted needle-exchange programs as effective grassroots initiatives to combat the spread of infectious disease and to steer heroin users into treatment.

Botticelli, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, also urged the medical community's vigilance against overprescribing pain medications. He called for mandatory medical education for prescribers as a way to stop the abuse of painkillers.

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It's been one year since the Northern Kentucky Heroin Impact Response Task Force came out with a "Call to Action" to fight the heroin epidemic.

On Tuesday night the group, made up of business leaders, law enforcement, health care workers, prevention and recovery leaders and families, will introduce the next phase of the attack on heroin.

Their plan has inspired 17 free overdose-prevention clinics providing 129 free kits containing a life-saving drug, naloxone. With five documented rescues, the latest is a boy who was celebrating his 15th birthday with heroin and overdosed in Covington.

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There is a new normal in our communities. For some children, stumbling across used, dirty needles at the park is more common than a pick-up game. Heroin addiction is a big disease with an even bigger negative impact on everyone.

Kentucky has the third-highest drug overdose ranking in the United States. Of the 722 drug overdose death fatalities autopsied in 2013, 31.9 percent were attributed to heroin, compared to 19.6 percent in 2012. The estimated cost of substance abuse in Kentucky is over $6 billion.

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With heroin use continuing to outstrip Kentucky's ability to treat addicts, Louisville's only no-fee drug recovery facility plans to nearly double its capacity for men.

The Healing Place on Friday will announce a two-year, $20 million expansion of its West Market Street men's complex, increasing detox beds from 24 to at least 50 and long-term recovery beds from 250 to 426 - a move officials say is driven primarily by the heroin epidemic.

Karyn Hascal, head of the nonprofit organization, said once-rare heroin has "overwhelmed" the facility and now accounts for 90 percent of clients in detox and 60 percent to 70 percent in the recovery program. She said waiting lists had grown so long they stopped keeping them.

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Researchers and Farmers Are Producing the First Legal Crop in the State in Generations

Murray, KY. (AP) - Call it a homecoming for hemp: Marijuana's non-intoxicating cousin is undergoing a rebirth in a state at the forefront of efforts to reclaim it as a mainstream crop.

Researchers and farmers are producing the first legal hemp crop in generations in Kentucky, where hemp has turned into a political cause decades after it was banned by the federal government.

Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul advocate for it, as does state Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, a Republican who is running for governor next year.

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MURRAY, Ky. (AP) - Call it a homecoming for hemp: Marijuana's nonintoxicating cousin is undergoing a rebirth in a state at the forefront of efforts to reclaim it as a mainstream crop.

Researchers and farmers are producing the first legal hemp crop in generations in Kentucky, where hemp has turned into a political cause decades after it was banned by the federal government. Republican U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul advocate for it, as does state Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, a Republican who is running for governor next year.

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State Is Gauging Economic Power of Long-Banned Plant

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Hemp has turned legitimate in Kentucky, where researchers are starting to plant test plots that will help gauge the economic potency of the nonintoxicating plant banned for decades due to its family ties to marijuana.

As part of the comeback, University of Kentucky agronomy researchers planted a small hemp plot Tuesday in central Kentucky. The seeds used were part of a shipment from Italy that was released last week after a legal standoff between Kentucky's Agriculture Department and the federal government.

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The long-delayed hemp seed arrived at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture in Frankfort about noon Friday, after being released by U.S. Customs in Louisville.

The seeds were imported from Italy for as many as eight pilot projects that the Agriculture Department will conduct with universities across the state. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration had seized the seeds and demanded that the state obtain a controlled substance permit to import and plant them.

The DEA said that even though the federal Farm Bill that Congress passed earlier this year allows growing hemp for research, the plant, Cannabis sativa, is the same as marijuana even though it has negligible amounts of high-inducing THC.

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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Tiny hemp seeds that produced a drawn-out legal fight were freed from confinement and delivered Friday to Kentucky's Agriculture Department for experimental plantings, marking a limited comeback for the nonintoxicating cousin of marijuana.

The seeds from Italy that drew so much suspicion from federal drug officials were unceremoniously unloaded from a UPS truck and then weighed by state agriculture officials. The shipment featuring 13 seed varieties came in at 286 pounds. It marked an uneventful conclusion to a standoff that pitted the state's Agriculture Department against the federal government.

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LOUISVILLE - A week after suing the federal government for the release of a shipment of hemp to plant, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture appears to be on the verge of getting its seeds.

After a second conference with U.S. District Judge John Heyburn on Wednesday, the KDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration reached a deal: the state, now a licensed importer of controlled substances as of Tuesday, will file paperwork for a permit to plant.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Schecter, representing the Justice Department and the DEA, said once the permit is approved the seeds could be released immediately.

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky's industrial hemp commission on Tuesday approved regulations setting guidelines for research projects that are meant to reintroduce the crop but are being stalled by a legal fight over distribution of seeds.

The regulations aimed at keeping track of test hemp plots were drafted by the state Agriculture Department. The guidelines next go to Gov. Steve Beshear for his review.

Later Tuesday, Holly Harris VonLuehrte, Agriculture Commissioner James Comer's chief of staff, said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had approved an import permit for hemp seeds. State officials have been assured they will be able Wednesday to get a shipment of hemp seed that has been held up.

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After a week of legal drama, the hemp seed will be freed.

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture was informed around 5 p.m. Thursday that the Drug Enforcement Administration has granted the state's permit to import hemp seed, according to Holly Harris VonLuehrte, chief of staff for Agriculture Commissioner James Comer.

"It's historic," Comer said Thursday night from Louisville. "We've paved the way for the rest of the nation to be able to do this, and I think it's exciting. Judging by interest exhibited by so many states wanting to get into this, that shows it's economically viable. ... We're in the lead here in Kentucky, and I hope it will be very profitable."

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A federal judge in Louisville has scheduled a hearing for Friday on the Kentucky Department of Agriculture's motion to force the U.S. Justice Department to release imported hemp seeds.

U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II has set a 1 p.m. hearing on a motion for a restraining order and preliminary injunction filed Wednesday by Agriculture Commissioner James Comer. The state has imported 250 pounds of Italian hemp seed that must be planted by June 1. U.S. Customs in Louisville has detained the seeds for more than a week.

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LOUISVILLE - Kentucky's Agriculture Department sued the federal government Wednesday, seeking the release of imported hemp seeds that have been held up by customs officials.

The 250-pound shipment from Italy has been held for more than a week by customs officials in Louisville.

"No state should have to endure what Kentucky has gone through in this process. We must take a stand against federal government overreach," Agriculture Commissioner James Comer said.

Defendants in the lawsuit include the Justice Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Attorney General Eric Holder.

Hemp is the same species as the marijuana plant but has a negligible amount of THC, the chemical that gets users high. The new federal farm bill lets state agriculture departments designate hemp projects for research.

[end]

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time believing that heroin and marijuana should be lumped together in the same class of drug.

But that is exactly what the DEA does. They list them both as Schedule I drugs, and that is the main reason marijuana is illegal. The DEA website describes these types of drugs as having "no accepted medical use" and having "a high potential for abuse."

It also calls them "the most dangerous drugs ... with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence."

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Rep. Robert Benvenuti, the most vocal opponent of the medical marijuana legalization bills in the Kentucky Legislature, is not the only one concerned about the growing acceptance of what is still considered a Schedule I drug under federal law.

Benvenuti has called for more research on cannabis use, a sentiment echoed last week by Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health.

Collins' comments were regarding the legalization of marijuana in general, not just for medicinal purposes.

"I'm afraid I'm sounding like this is an evil drug that's going to ruin our civilization and I don't really think that," he told USA TODAY. "But there are aspects of this that probably should be looked at more closely than some of the legalization experts are willing to admit."

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It's encouraging to read in Sen. Rand Paul's Feb. 6 column that American farmers may finally grow hemp - just like communist Chinese farmers. I've been purchasing products made with hemp for many years, which is all imported and I would prefer to purchase those products made with hemp grown by American farmers. A sane or moral argument to prohibit American farmers from cultivating hemp doesn't exist.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.

[end]

Regarding Sen. Rand Paul's thoughtful Feb. 6 column, the U.S. is indeed one of the few countries in the world that denies farmers the right to grow industrial hemp.

Apparently federal bureaucrats can't tell the difference between a tall hemp stalk and a squat marijuana bush. Prior to passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, few Americans had heard of marijuana, despite widespread cultivation of industrial hemp.

The first anti-marijuana laws were a racist reaction to Mexican immigration during the early 1900s. White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched federal bureaucracy began funding "reefer madness" propaganda.

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