South Carolina lawmakers have approved legislation, Senate Bill 839, reclassifying varieties of cannabis possessing minute quantities of THC as an industrial crop rather than a controlled substance. In February, members of Congress approved language (Section 7606) in the omnibus federal Farm Bill (aka the United States Agricultural Act of 2014) authorizing states to sponsor hemp research absent federal reclassification of the plant. Since that time, lawmakers in five states — Hawaii, Indiana, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Utah — have enacted legislation allowing for state-sponsored hemp cultivation.

LEGISLATION

Colorado: Governor Signs Law Regulating State Hemp Production

by Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director
Posted on June 14, 2013June 20, 2022

Governor John Hickenlooper has signed legislation, Senate Bill 241, into law creating a new program within the Department of Agriculture to oversee the regulation of commercial hemp production. Hemp is a distinct variety of the plant species cannabis sativa that contains only minute (less than 1%) amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Senate Bill 241 classifies cannabis possessing no more than three-tenths of one percent THC as an agricultural commodity and establishes a 9-member committee within the state Department of Agriculture to oversee the creation of regulations governing the licensed cultivation of hemp for commercial and research purposes. The Department must adopt regulations for the new program no later than March 1, 2014.

ACTIVISM

US Senate To Consider Hemp Farming Legislation For First Time

by Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director
Posted on February 19, 2013June 20, 2022

For the first time in modern history, members of the United States Senate have introduced…

GOVERNMENT

The Drug Czar Knows Even Less About Hemp Than He Knows About Marijuana

by Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director
Posted on April 30, 2012June 16, 2022

America’s top drug cop is clearly not an expert in agriculture. So why is Obama’s…

ACTIVISM

Marijuana Prohibition Era Cartoon Par Excellence: Hemp's Notorious Cousin

by Allen St. Pierre, Former NORML Executive Director
Posted on January 8, 2011June 16, 2022

Thanks to the GlobalMana Foundation and the design group Northshorecartoon for publishing a very creative,…

ECONOMICS

8th Circuit Court rules industrial hemp is still marijuana

by Russ Belville
Posted on December 30, 2009June 25, 2020

The “rational basis” here is that North Dakota farmers can’t grow tall, reedy hemp plants that could never ever get anyone high, because that will confuse the law enforcement officials who are working to eradicate short bushy cannabis plants that are grown to get people high. Somehow, in Australia, Canada, and China to name a few countries, police who are tasked with eradicating illegal cannabis in those countries that have legal hemp have no difficulty whatsoever distinguishing the two crops, but American police are just baffled by basic agriculture.

ECONOMICS

David Bronner among those arrested for planting hemp at DEA HQ

by Russ Belville
Posted on October 13, 2009June 24, 2020

They’ll tell you that if hemp were legal, growers of illicit high-THC pot would hide their crops in-between the rows of hemp. Any farmer can tell you that what you’d get is cross-pollination; the hemp would ruin the high of the pot and the pot would ruin the strength of the hemp.