AG Commissioner Seeks To Legalize Hemp

{Frankfort, Kentucky}…Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer says he will seek to legalize industrial hemp in 2013. During a Wednesday meeting of the Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission, Comer vowed passing hemp legislation would be his top priority. For now, however, federal law prohibits growing the plant for industrial, recreational or medicinal purposes because of its association with marijuana. Kentucky once was a leading producer of industrial hemp, a tall, leafy plant later outlawed for decades. Hemp and marijuana are the same species, cannabis sativa, but are genetically distinct. Hemp has a negligible content of THC, the psychoactive compound that gives marijuana users a high.