Authored by Carey Wedler via Steemit.com,
On Thursday, the U.S. Senate approved a bill to legalize hemp, an industrial crop that has been banned for decades.
In April, Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Rand Paul (R-KY), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) submitted a separate bill to legalize hemp, and those provisions were then incorporated into the broader farm bill. The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry approved that version before the upper house of Congress voted to approve it this week by a margin of 86-11. The bill would legalize the cultivation, processing, and sale of hemp.
“Consumers across America buy hundreds of millions in retail products every year that contain hemp,” McConnell said Thursday.
“But due to outdated federal regulations that do not sufficiently distinguish this industrial crop from its illicit cousin, American farmers have been mostly unable to meet that demand themselves. It’s left consumers with little choice but to buy imported hemp products from foreign-produced hemp.”
According to Wyden:
“Legalizing hemp nationwide ends decades of bad policymaking and opens up untold economic opportunity for farmers in Oregon and across the country.”
Hemp is a versatile crop that can be used in everything from construction material to clothing, and it has long been a staple in the United States and around the world. In fact, in the 17th century, the government encouraged people to grow it.
Though hemp was eventually banned amid the widespread attack on cannabis in the 1930s, ironically, it then had to be imported to sustain the war effort during World War II.
Farmers across the country have expressed relief and excitement that hemp has come this close to legalization.
“It’s super big,” Dani Billings, who owns LoCo farms in Longmont Colorado, said, as reported by an NBC affiliate station in Colorado . “We have people who understand agriculture, that understand this is for farming and it’s not to get people high.”
Bruce Perlowin, CEO of NC-based Hemp Inc., which worked with veterans, said in a press release:
“With Veteran Village Kins Community B-Corporations set up in 8 states so far, the legalization of industrial hemp will now allow these future veteran villages to be built and to flourish – creating more support for our veterans than anyone can possibly imagine.”
The bill still must be approved by the House, which has expressed opposition to hemp legalization, though McConnell is expected to campaign heavily in favor of the bill in the lower house of Congress. A list of concerns about the bill handed down from the White House reportedly did not include any objections to hemp legalization, meaning that if the bill makes it through the House, it’s likely President Trump will sign it into law.
Some states have passed legislation in recent years legalizing hemp, but the latest legislation would make it national policy.
Hemp oil can also be made into gasoline and can be used (directly or refined) in diesel engines in place of petroleum based diesel fuel.
I researched this once and forget the production figures, but it can be grown on otherwise almost worthless marginal agricultural land in large quantities and (at least at that time) it can be quite competitive with petroleum.
Good , maybe those at the DEA will leave my Kratom alone.
What will the investment opportunities be?
http://www.informationdistillery.com/hemp.htm
https://hempbasics.com/shop/hemp-information
Randolph Hearst is rolling over in his grave , it was his investment in wood pulp industry that stymied and pushed to make hemp illegal so all the newspapers used wood pulp paper products as that industry grew and assisted in decimating forests hemp research and products lost any and all marketable traction . Until WW2 when the fear of losing the fiber products for rope loomed large . Besides mostly American Indians , Chinese and black Americans were the bulk of the users for getting high so one more reason to lock them up . At that prejudicial time in America it’s a win / win !
One of the big problems the producers of the hemp for rope was the best quality fiber plants were directly related to how potent the smokable part of the plant was .
Jeff Sessions has his whiney panties in a wad over this one . The attorney general that brags and cheers asset forfiture on suspicion , never mind the presumption of innocence or denial of due process . You get your stuff back after bankrupting yourself to prove your innocence . Wow what a deal offered by our Constitutional Free Republic Of Independent States where the BILL OF RIGHTS is that inpentrable shield protecting all its citizens !
I know dream on …..
I can’t believe CON-gress actually got something useful done for once.
actually k,
imo this is not the way it should have been done–
instead of legalizing it,all federal regulation should have been repealed & each state should set it’s own policy–the repukes talk a good 10th amendment ballgame but when do they really mean it?
Useful?
Sure, for them. Someone lobbied like hell for this.
They will tax and regulate the shit out of it, just like they do everything. Eventually they will get around paying people NOT to grow it.
If the government followed the physicians oath “first do no harm” they’d all find another job.
That’s a big F.U. to foreign hemp.
Maybe they’ll subsidize hemp and put 10% hempanol in your diesel fuel.
Precursor to cannabis legalization. Congress starting to figure out they can grease a lot of cannabis tax revenue and lobbyist money form cannabis industry. Its all about the pocket book: no not yours, the governments!