Cannabis Farming Has Kentucky Republicans Seeing Economic Boost [View all]

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-31/cannabis-farming-has-kentucky-republicans-seeing-economic-boost.html


Kentucky State Police and Kentucky National Guard troops wade through acres of dense Chinese silvergrass as they search for marijuana plants near Barbourville, Kentucky.

Kentucky Republicans and business leaders are promoting an unlikely way to boost the state’s economic development: Grow cannabis.

Kentucky leaders want their state to become the king of hemp, a plant that comes from the same species as marijuana, though doesn’t contain enough of the intoxicating ingredient to cause a high.

They want to help state farmers overcome the federal government’s treatment of hemp as an illegal drug, and produce it on an industrial scale, for use in items such as soap, horse bedding, building materials and auto body parts. Kentucky is one of at least five states, including Indiana and Vermont, where lawmakers have introduced measures allowing hemp farming.

The Kentucky effort is supported by legislative leaders, the state chamber of commerce, Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul and agricultural commissioner James Comer, a Republican who campaigned on bringing the crop to his state.