Kentucky Hemp Bill Gets No Decision from House Committee

The Kentucky House committee refused to make any decision on a bill that the Republican-led Kentucky Senate easily passed.

Interestingly, there is absolutely nothing in the way that should stop the bill from going forward, other than a weak argument that because industrial hemp looks similar to marijuana, it would be more difficult to differentiate between the two by law enforcement.

But that's really irrelevant, as all law enforcement needs to do some testing involving crimes, so that's not really an issue at all.

Committee Chairman Tom McKee, D-Cynthiana, for some odd reason, wants to tie this into a federal permit, which would give permission for experimental hemp production in Kentucky.

There's no need for any type of experiment, Kentucky farmers decades ago learned how to grow industrial hemp, and all that is needed is a go ahead to proceed. There is no reason whatsoever to tie this into the federal government.

When a motion to take a vote was put forward, McKee ruled the motion as being out of order.

Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, who has pushed for passage of a hemp bill in Kentucky, said this:

"This issue symbolizes what's wrong with the Kentucky General Assembly. The majority of the legislators want to do good things, they want to create jobs, they want to help farmers, but it gets bogged down in the political bickering."

Comer pointed to the fact that not only would Kentucky farmers get a new cash crop to grow, but it would result in the creation of processing jobs in the state.

As for the alleged use of hemp fields to grow marijuana, that's not even going to happen, as it is widely known in the industry that cross-pollination between hemp and marijuana created an inferior marijuana plant that would weaken the potency of the plant, rendering it pretty much useless to those seeking a high. It would be similar to watering down beer and thinking the product wouldn't decrease in demand.

So when all is said and done, industrial hemp needs to quickly be approved of so Kentucky farmers can grow it and new processing jobs created. There are no reasons whatsoever to deny this, as you can easily see.