USDA’s hemp rules open door to states to set up regulations
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Tuesday his department was opening “a new economic opportunity for America’s farmers” with the issuance of long-awaited rules governing legal hemp production and a path for state and tribal governments to submit regulatory plans for review.
The USDA is setting the minimum rules, allowing states to impose more restrictive requirements. One official said the department would ”test drive” the interim rule in the 2020 growing season and then adopt a final rule.
The department’s rules are the latest step in the rehabilitation of a crop that had long been banned. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky included provisions in the 2018 farm bill that removed hemp from the Controlled Substances list, where it had been classified as an illegal substance with its cannabis cousin, marijuana.
McConnell built on language he’d gotten into the 2014 farm bill that allowed limited and controlled hemp production overseen by states to make sure pot growers didn’t use hemp as a cover for growing what is still an illegal substance under federal law.
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The USDA is setting the minimum rules, allowing states to impose more restrictive requirements. One official said the department would ”test drive” the interim rule in the 2020 growing season and then adopt a final rule.
The department’s rules are the latest step in the rehabilitation of a crop that had long been banned. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky included provisions in the 2018 farm bill that removed hemp from the Controlled Substances list, where it had been classified as an illegal substance with its cannabis cousin, marijuana.
McConnell built on language he’d gotten into the 2014 farm bill that allowed limited and controlled hemp production overseen by states to make sure pot growers didn’t use hemp as a cover for growing what is still an illegal substance under federal law.
Click Here to read more.