Hemp Panel to Feds: Kentucky is Moving Forward

The Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission on Thursday directed Kentucky Department of Agriculture staff to begin writing regulations governing industrial hemp production in the commonwealth and voted to serve notice to the federal government that Kentucky is moving forward.

The commission called for a letter from Commissioner Comer and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul to the U.S. Department of Justice to make Kentucky's intentions known. Sen. Paul's office has indicated that he is willing to sign on to such a letter. Industrial hemp is legal under Kentucky law, and at a recent U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, a DOJ official indicated that the federal government will not prosecute hemp farming.

“Hemp is legal in Kentucky, and the federal government has signaled that it does not view industrial hemp as an illegal substance and it will not prosecute hemp farmers,” Comer said. “Surely…no entity will seek to throw up a government obstacle to moving forward with another opportunity for Kentucky farmers and for manufacturing jobs.”

Commissioner Comer presented at a hemp briefing on Tuesday in Washington, and on Thursday he told the commission that the response was "very positive." Comer and U.S. Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Jared Polis of Colorado held the briefing to educate congressional staffers about the differences between hemp and marijuana and the many uses of industrial hemp.

"At the conclusion of the briefing, the mindset of the congressional staffers present was that this is a no-brainer and that we should be doing this," Comer said.

KDA attorney Luke Morgan told the commission a 2003 federal regulation clarifies that industrial hemp is not marijuana and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration does not have jurisdiction over hemp. "Industrial hemp is not marijuana," Morgan said. "That’s a fact, but it's also the law."

Commissioner Comer said the state agriculture department receives requests on a daily basis from businesses that want to move to Kentucky and process hemp.

"As a farmer, my No. 1 priority is to give farmers another tool in their tool box," Comer said. "This will be successful only if there will be companies to purchase hemp from farmers. We have to be able to locate processors in the state."

Comer said poultry and equine businesses have expressed interest in hemp bedding, which would be easy to process and would "jump start" the industry in Kentucky.

"Looking down the road 10 years from now, hemp will have a significant positive impact on Kentucky agriculture," Comer said.

At the close of today’s meeting, commission member Craig Lee resigned in order to pursue a position with the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association.

“Craig has been a member of this commission almost since the day it was formed,” Comer said. “His experience is unmatched, we are so grateful for his service, and I look forward to working with him in his new role.”

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Medical marijuana activists rally at state Capitol

People from across the country rallied Wednesday at the Kentucky Capitol hoping to ultimately influence state lawmakers to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Members of the House and Senate Committee on Health and Welfare listened to passionate testimony along with occasional outbursts from the audience in what Sen. Perry Clark, D-Louisville, called a historic hearing.

Clark pointed out that 20 states plus Washington, D.C., have permitted people to use marijuana for medicinal purposes.

“We can’t really say that marijuana has no medicinal value,” Clark said. “The cat’s out of the bag. Marijuana is a medicine; it is a forbidden medicine.”

The senator called current marijuana prohibition laws “hypocrisy” and pointed out the federal government actually holds a patent for the plant.

Irvin Rosenfeld of Florida is a medical marijuana patient who is one of four Americans authorized by the federal government to hold a prescription. Rosenfeld, born with a rare debilitating bone disease, said without decades of cannabis, he likely would be dead or homebound and a “drain on society.” The stockbroker used marijuana illegally for about a decade but successfully fought federal officials and won the legal right to have a prescription in 1982.

Before turning to cannabis, Rosenfeld took potentially addictive prescription drugs such as morphine, Valium and now-outlawed Quaaludes. He pointed out that morphine is synthetic heroin. Chuck Thompson of Paducah voiced similar sentiments about the popular prescription painkiller methadone and pointed out that Nazi scientists invented methadone.

Thompson, who uses a wheelchair due to severe limb swelling and nerve damage, says he was prosecuted under current state laws for using marijuana for medicinal purposes. As a result, he risks five years imprisonment for any further illicit cannabis use and says he is forced to take four methadone pills a day to alleviate his “chronic, excruciating pain.”

“I am a medicine user,” Thompson said. “I am not a drug abuser.”

After the session, dozens of activists, including Randy Grimes of Stanford and Paula Kaye Willett of Marshall County, met at the steps of the Capitol Annex building.

Cannabis “has never killed anybody,” Grimes said. “(Medical marijuana) is even legal in D.C. where the president of the United States lives.”

Willett, who had hoped to testify before the committee but did not get an opportunity to do so, has battled numerous medical problems since the 1970s, including chronic pain from two motor vehicle collisions, anxiety, depression and an inflammation of the colon.

“The one plant that God Himself put on this planet for man’s use helps everything that is wrong with my body,” Willett said. “I do not use cannabis to get ‘high’ and have a party; I use cannabis to heal my body and bring me closer to my Creator and help make me a better person, a better mom and able to do my job as a mom and be productive in society.”

Wednesday’s hearing represented the beginning of what could be a long process to get a bill sponsored let alone passed through state legislators. Any bill sponsored in the near future would face opposition by Republican Rep. Robert Benvenuti of Fayette County; the representative is a former Inspector General for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

"When I read articles that medical marijuana is good for anxiety, I'll tell you right now that tells me one thing — it's open to abuse,” Benvenuti said. “And until I'm assured where the clinical evidence is, this is not going to have my support.”

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