Written by Stephen Kenney
Many Kentucky farmers have been tobacco farmers for all of their lives. They have seen days when Kentucky’s tobacco crop grossed nearly a billion dollars a year. Anti-smoking campaigns and high taxes on cigarettes have contributed to a decreased demand for tobacco. The new hope for these old tobacco farmers is cannabis sativa otherwise known as hemp. The issue is that at this point hemp is just as illegal as marijuana.
Many Kentucky farmers have been tobacco farmers for all of their lives. They have seen days when Kentucky’s tobacco crop grossed nearly a billion dollars a year. Anti-smoking campaigns and high taxes on cigarettes have contributed to a decreased demand for tobacco. The new hope for these old tobacco farmers is cannabis sativa otherwise known as hemp. The issue is that at this point hemp is just as illegal as marijuana.
Hemp once dominated the Kentucky landscape when the crop was
needed to support the war effort in WWII.
The government temporarily allowed and encouraged farmers to grow hemp
to support the military. Hemp was used
for rigging, towing, thread for shoes, and parachute webbing.
The main difference between hemp and marijuana is the amount
of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) present in the plant. Hemp has a THC level below point-three
percent. Marijuana has THC levels that vary
between one-percent and twenty-percent.
Hemp also has valuable industrial potential. “The fiber can be used in rope, clothing,
building materials, even car dashboards,” according to PBS.
The Kentucky State Police are not as excited by the possible
industrial use of hemp. The state police say that it is impossible to
distinguish between hemp and marijuana with aerial surveillance which is how
they discover and destroy most of the marijuana grown in the state. Their other concern is the unscrupulous
farmer. They say it would be too easy
for a farmer to grow a few marijuana plants under the cover of a field of hemp.
James Comer, the Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner, has been
leading the movement to change hemp's legal status. When Comer took office in 2012 he pushed the
state legislature to pass a law that would create a framework for a Kentucky
hemp industry. The potential industry
still needed federal government support.
Senator Mitch McConnell provided that support by adding a measure to the
2014 Farm Bill that extended the right to grow and study industrial hemp from
colleges and universities to state agriculture departments. The measure has paved the way for states to
license individual farmers to grow hemp.
Uncertainty still remains as to the legal status of industrial hemp, but
Kentucky is moving forward with licensing farmers.
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