It's for rope, officer, purely for the production of rope. I have it bricked up for ease of transportation . . . to the rope factory.

I agree with McConnell on one thing

I have been calling my Senator to introduce a bill to allow the growing of hemp .............

hemp just makes too much sense to stick to bullshit laws based on the fallacy that hemp is some kind of a drug.....

Something more nefarious. I think Agri-Business might want a taste of the profit here. Where the "mom and pop" don't meet the qualifications and get shunted out of the backwater business they were running to be overrun by Agri-business style capitalism.

"Dallas tornado sucking up semi trucks like toys"

The private sector.

We import hundreds of millions of dollars worth of it every year.

McConnell: “The utilization of hemp to produce everything from clothing to paper is real and if there is a capacity to center a new domestic industry in Kentucky that will create jobs in these difficult economic times that sounds like a good thing to me.”

weed being grown outside and reduce the potency? Not sure I worded it properly, but will appreciate any answers anyone may know.

and the "experimental" growers do it mostly indoors, anyway. And you can get always new seeds for out-doors varieties, if you are growing near low THC hemp and don't want to use those seeds. And established varieties are done from clones anyway, not from seeds... so no worries, is all goood.

Only seeds from those plants would have weaker THC levels. If you planted good plants it would produce good weed. You just have to plant good seeds every season.

...female plants that continue to flower without being pollinated is destroyed by a hemp field.

Pollination stops the flower budding process and thus ruins the potential of the marijuana plant.

So no...no one would get their plants anywhere near a hemp field.

Also pollination does not stop the flowering process. Outdoor growing is a seasonal thing. Growing, flowering and pollination occurs at specific times of the year. You just have to harvest your plants at the right time. Sure in a controlled environment you can get bigger buds with no seeds. But hey, people still smoke dirt weed.

The inherent quality of the THC from the pot plant would remain constant.

However, due to the cross pollination from hemp the pot plant would be fertilized thus creating potentially a ratty harvest of very seedy pot. And since the pot has been fertilized the pot plant shifts it's energy to seed production rather than THC.

Yes the pot will still have potent THC but the concentrations of the THC will be greatly diminished due to the seed production. So basically if a pot crop got heavily dusted with hemp pollen the pot crop's overall quality, usability and value would be severely diminished.

My point was only from the immediate crop being ruined and not the long term viability of the pot strain as long as seeds created by the cross were not used.

It's not a dilution of the genetics of the pot plant but rather an altering of it's growth function from THC production to seeds that is the main problem with growing the two related plant species in close proximity of one another.

They don't talk shop with people outside the business. I venture to guess it won't be a problem.

on the existing crop. The long term viability of the strain would only be effected if you used the seeds from the cross pollination.

The genetics of the weed at that time would not be altered. The only thing to be altered would be the transfer of growth from THC production to seed production thus reducing the quantities of THC and producing seedy weed.

You could even take cuttings from the cross pollinated pot plants and the genetics would remain pretty much constant. (Obviously the seeds created by the cross would be worthless.) The next crop created from those cuttings would produce basically the same quality pot as the original pot plants had the potential to have.

My apologies for not understanding your question completely.

I'm shocked that the cons from Kentucky have their head outta their ass long enough to get behind this.. but, here we are.

Let this be the start of HEMP USA. It's only the 21 Freaking Century.

Is this the same McConnell we know and love?

but I want to know who cut him a check to take this position. It damn-sure wasn't NORML.

stating that Paul talked him into it. We got it, McConnell 2014, Paul 2016

...Kentucky is ready to throw Mitch under the bus of late. Hadn't you all heard? So this is Mitch's tit-for-tat offering. I don't think it's going to cut the mustard, though. It's all hot air, if you ask me. Thanks for posting this though, IDemo.

do anything ever, for money and power. Probably a combo of both in this matter.

than Jerry Brown on this issue. So much for "progressive" California.

Behind Washington and Colorado on MJ laws. CA has ceded the title of most Progressive state.

of my state of those "accomplishments." :hangingheadinshame: Otoh, I have to defend CA on the marriage equality issue. Instead of slushing through the ballot initiative process, we're in the process of taking it to the SC so it can FINALLY be decided on a federal level and we don't have to go through this ridiculous state-by-state bullshit. 'Course that's assuming they'll rule in our favor which, with the make-up of this court, is a BIG assumption.

We're still pretty liberal on our MM laws but ole' Jerry hasn't said word one about the feds coming in and raiding dispensaries in his state but what's worse is that he VETOED hemp legalization which the CA leg. passed last year.

The DEA considers hemp to be marijuana. Period. So you can't grow it here unless you want the DEA coming down on you. Like they did a few years ago on Albert White Plume (?) on the Pine Ridge.

Eight or nine states have already passed hemp bills, but they are nothing without a change in federal law.

They go also after Native tribes wanting to grow hemp, breaking their treaties again and again.

I don't know if one has been introduced in this Congress.

Nope, just looked.

Was it even close to passing? I would think that more Republicans would be against this than Democrats, no?

You would think Democrats would support this more than Republicans, but they're really about the same on it. Indifferent.

Banning domestic hemp cultivation may be the single stupidest thing about the whole drug war, and that's saying something.

McConnell, like Paul just comes out on the record "supporting" it, but don't expect either of them to actually spend one minute of effort working for it aside from the occasional "symbolic" bill...

So, Kentucky is setting up a system where by they grow the Hemp and North Carolina processes it.

Seem to me that TN is right in the middle of that deal. Maybe the stupid RepubliCONS here in TN would allow us farmers to grow Hemp too.

Nah, TN RepubliCONS are really, really stupid. After all it was our TN Senators who wanted to take $1 Trillion from Social Security to pay the federal debt.

It is another potential crop for some areas but if it is legalized the bulk of it will likely be grown on very large farms as it lends itself to large acreage commodity type production (easily mechanized, need for off farm processing). Think cotton. Hemp is basically a fiber crop like cotton. Yes there are other uses from the seeds, etc. but is basically a fiber crop.

We are not red states and blue states. We are the getting high United States.

He is still a douche. Personally I could care less about hemp. Big whoop. I wanna be free to get high without feeling like I'm gonna get in trouble. Specifically, when I go buy. Fucking hemp. Fucking Mitch. Fucking war on drugs. Imma go burn one and calm down....

Tells the story of Kentucky's crazy-ass pot growers in the '70s and '80s, and the largest domestic pot cultivation bust in US history. Quite a read.

DENVER — Hemp suffers from a bad image problem.

Though hemp does contain a trace amount of tetrahydrocannabinol, the active chemical in marijuana, it is not pot, not even close, supporters of industrializing it say.
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/two-legislators-to-push-bill-on-industrial-hemp

colorado ^^^ ('not even close' is an understatement)

***

Kentucky Senate Bill 50, pushed by state Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, would allow production of industrial hemp if the federal government reclassified the plant as separate from marijuana.
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130131/BUSINESS/301310059/1003/rsslink?nclick_check=1

***

In the cannabis plant family, hemp is the good seed. Marijuana, the evil weed. Michael Bowman, a gregarious Colorado farmer who grows corn and wheat, has been working his contacts in Congress in an attempt to persuade lawmakers that hemp has been framed, unfairly lumped with the stuff people smoke to get high.

Somehow over time, as Bowman’s pitch goes, hemp, which is used to make paper, oils and a variety of useful products, was mistaken for its twin, marijuana — a.k.a pot, chronic, blunt and weed — a medicinal drug loaded with tetrahydrocannabinol that buzzes the mind. Hemp got caught up in the legendary crusade against pot popularized by the movie “Reefer Madness.” All varieties of cannabis ended up on the most-wanted list, outlawed by Congress as well as lawmakers in other nations, inspiring people to kill it on sight.

Bowman’s message is simple: Be sensible. “Can we just stop being stupid? Can we just talk about how things need to change?”

National Zoo orangutans use iPads to amuse themselves
LiveScience JAN 28
Barnacles’ quirky sex lives turn out to be even kinkier than thought
Also, a new study confirms what millions long knew: High heels may not be comfortable, but they are sexy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/hemp-legalization-effort-gathers-steam/2013/01/13/f8b984f0-5a94-11e2-9fa9-5fbdc9530eb9_story.html

***

“A lot of people in the General Assembly House and Senate have a lot of questions not answered, including the viability and what it takes to grow the crop and what the profitability of the crop is,” McKee said. “It’s too soon to say what will happen.”
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20130129/NEWS010802/301290048/&nclick_check=1

will somebody PLEASE teach the KY politicians how to operate the internets?

One acre of industrial hemp plants can grow around 15,000 pounds of green hemp in about 110 days. For every ton of hemp converted into paper, we could save 12 trees. It is a renewable, sustainable, environmentally conscious crop.
http://kentuckyhempcoalition.blogspot.com/

*** (sounds like they're BUSY...)

SB 50 (BR 433) - P. Hornback, D. Seum, W. Blevins Jr., D. Harper Angel, D. Thayer, R. Webb

AN ACT relating to industrial hemp.
Create new sections of KRS Chapter 260 to define "Commissioner," "department," "grower," "industrial hemp," and "tetrahydrocannabinol"; establish conditions and procedures for the licensing of industrial hemp growers by the Department of Agriculture; require the department to coordinate a criminal history check with the assistance of law enforcement agencies; establish a license duration period; require the department to set the cost of the license by administrative regulation; require the department to forward a copy of an industrial hemp grower license to law enforcement agencies; specify stipulations for growers having an industrial hemp grower license; clarify that the Act does not authorize a person to violate federal law; require periodic reports to the Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission; establish circumstances under which a license may be withdrawn; amend KRS 218A.010 to conform; amend KRS 260.853 to clarify the scope of industrial hemp research; amend KRS 260.857 to allow for additional members of the Industrial Hemp Commission and designate the commissioner as the commission chair; amend KRS 260.859 to conform.

Jan 11-introduced in Senate
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/13RS/SB50.htm