This could be year that Congress legalizes industrial hemp.
According toThe Cannabist, a bipartisan group of lawmakers are again calling for industrial hemp to be legally separated from marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act.
Hemp has been classified as a Schedule I Drug since 1970 under the Controlled Substances Act. Past attempts to remove it have failed, but now, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act is back in the House and according to a bipartisan coalition of congressional leaders and agricultural advocates, it has the momentum for passage.
Hemp plants are defined as having less than .3 percent psychoactive THC, the chemical compound in cannabis that gives the euphoric high that accompanies smoking marijuana.
Several states have already passed laws allowing for the commercial production of hemp, including Colorado. Nebraska’s law allows research and limited commercial activity of the crop and there is pending hemp legislation in both Kansas and Colorado. Oklahoma is the only High Plains state with no current or pending hemp laws.