A bipartisan group of lawmakers are again calling for industrial hemp to be legally separated from marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act, and advocates believe they might just have the political momentum to succeed.
These are times of cautious but rising optimism for supporters of industrial hemp.
Since 1970, all forms of Cannabis sativa L., including hemp, have been classified as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act. Past legislative attempts to remove hemp from the CSA — six bills in the House and three in the Senate since 2005 — all died in committees without a floor vote.
But the Industrial Hemp Farming Act is back for its seventh iteration in the House, this time with momentum for passage, according to a bipartisan coalition of congressional leaders and agricultural advocates.
With the introduction of the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2017… Read more at The Cannabist