Interesting: KY GOP Ag Commissioner fighting Demo Attorney General over hemp production. Very Interesting: GOP Ag Commissioner supports growing hemp...

Democrats and Republicans switch sides in KY hemp wars...

The argument over whether Kentucky farmers can begin growing hemp — as soon as next year — got hotter on Wednesday with Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway issuing a written opinion that the crop is still illegal, and farmers who grow it could be prosecuted.
Anyone who intentionally grows the crop “will expose themselves to potential criminal liability and the possible seizure of property,” Conway’s opinion said.
That prompted a challenge from state Agriculture Commissioner James Comer’s office, suggesting that neither the federal or state government would charge growers.
“The law is that industrial hemp is legal in Kentucky. If the feds aren’t going to prosecute industrial hemp, surely the attorney general of Kentucky isn’t going to move forward with prosecuting hemp farmers,” said Holly VonLuehrte, Comer’s general counsel and spokeswoman.
Hemp leaves appear identical to marijuana, but hemp is grown for the fiber in its stalks and has only a tiny amount of THC, the intoxicating chemical in pot.
Comer, an advocate for hemp, and the Kentucky Hemp Commission, which Comer revived last year to suggest hemp policy, contend the U.S. Justice Department’s recent stance easing enforcement of marijuana laws along with the state’s new hemp law, means the plant can be grown legally in the state.

Full disclosure: My father actually grew hemp legally in Kentucky when he was a young man. 

Interesting: Senators McConnell and Paul team up to bring grass back to the Bluegrass State...

The grass they want to bring back is industrial hemp, but somewhere Gatewood Galbraith is smiling. Gatewood was a colorful perennial Kentucky candidate for Governor who ran primarily on the issue of marijuana legalization.

Via MSNBC:

Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul have teamed up in an unlikely duo to high-five plans to legalize it–hemp, that is.

The Senate minority leader cosponsored a bill with two Oregon senators Thursday to federally legalize hemp, a variety of the plant species that also produces marijuana. If passed, the bill will downgrade the virtually-harmless hemp from its current federal standing as a Schedule I illegal drug, the FDA’s most severe classification (other Schedule I drugs include heroin and LSD).

“During these tough economic times, this legislation has the potential to create jobs and provide a boost to Kentucky’s economy and to our farmers and their families,” McConnell said in a statement Thursday.

Ron Paul locks up the stoner vote

Image by Gregory Jordan via Flickr

Just kidding with the title. Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is promoting hemp during North Dakota campaign stops. He isn't talking about the kind you smoke. Rep. Paul is promoting industrial hemp.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul praised hemp as an alternative crop and said a free-market approach would protect the nation's environment Monday during North Dakota campaign stops that drew hundreds of cheering supporters.

North Dakota, which is holding Republican presidential caucuses March 6, is one of 13 states with a caucus or primary from Feb. 28 to March 6. North Dakota has 28 delegates to the Republican National Convention in August, although the caucus results will not dictate how any of them vote.

Paul campaigned in Williston, Dickinson, Jamestown and Bismarck on Sunday and Monday, following rival Rick Santorum's swing through Fargo, on the Minnesota border, and the northwestern oil-country town of Tioga last week.

In Jamestown, about 100 miles east of Bismarck, Paul was critical of the federal government's ban on the cultivation of industrial hemp, a crop that is related to marijuana but does not have its mind-affecting properties.

Industrial hemp is grown in neighboring Canada and other countries, where it is used to make paper, lotions, clothing and biofuels.[...]

"There is no reason, in a free society, that farmers shouldn't be allowed to raise hemp," Paul said during a Jamestown appearance that drew about 300 people. "Hemp is a good product." Keep on reading...