The Drug Enforcement Administration is insisting that the Kentucky Department of Agriculture apply for a permit to import schedule 1 drugs before it can get access to hemp seeds the agency has seized, according to a letter the DEA sent late Tuesday night.

The letter, obtained by HuffPost through an open records request, represents a reversal of a previous agreement, said Holly Harris VonLuehrte, a senior official at the Kentucky ag office.

“We were told yesterday in multiple phone calls that we wouldn’t have to do this schedule 1 import permit,” said VonLuehrte, adding that agreeing to the DEA demand would be an implicit admission that hemp is, in fact, a schedule 1 drug. “Industrial hemp is not a schedule 1 controlled substance. We’re not going to execute a document that violates federal and state law.”

Agriculture Commissioner James Comer (R) had announced earlier on Tuesday that a deal had been struck, and that the DEA would be releasing the seeds. “It looks like we’ve won this round,” Comer had said. The DEA completely reversed course from this morning. I think we just needed to get their attention.”

Yet freedom for the 250-pound shipment of hemp seeds remains in question. A DEA spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The DEA letter, signed by DEA Deputy Assistant Administrator Joseph T. Rannazzisi of the Office of Diversion Control, insists that there is some confusion as a result of this year’s Farm Bill, which legalized hemp for research purposes in states that set up regulatory regimes, as Kentucky as done. The language was backed by, among others, Republican Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell — placing the DEA squarely in opposition to the Senate minority leader, as well as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who also championed the measure.

“They’re appalled,” said VonLuehrte of McConnell’s office.

A ceremony to launch Kentucky’s hemp project is scheduled for Friday.

from Green – The Huffington Post http://ift.tt/1nOicrL