FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants a full pardon for hemp.
The Kentucky Republican on Monday previewed legislation seeking to free the plant from its ties to marijuana and let it take root as a legitimate crop.
Hemp — marijuana’s nonintoxicating cousin — would be removed from the controlled substances list under the bill he’s offering, McConnell said. The result would legalize hemp as an agricultural commodity.
“We’re going to give it everything we’ve got to pull it off,” the Senate’s top leader told hemp advocates in his home state.
The crop has been grown on an experimental basis in a number of states in recent years, and Kentucky has been at the forefront of hemp’s comeback. Kentucky agriculture officials have approved more than 12,000 acres to be grown in the state this year, and 57 Kentucky processors are helping turn the raw product into a multitude of products.
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