( AWNN ) Senator Ron Wyden publicly denounced the federal ban on hemp, pointing out that we are selling hemp products in grocery stores throughout America but are, ridiculously, legally bound from growing it on American soil.

Under the federal Controlled Substances Act, hemp is classified under marijuana but Wyden points out that they are “very, very different in key ways.

Wyden iterated to his colleagues at the Senate:

“Industrial hemp does not have the psychoactive properties of marijuana. You’d have as much luck getting high by smoking cotton from a T-shirt as you would by smoking hemp,”

He believes that the ban, in addition to being inaccurate, has held the American farmer back from capitalizing on this valuable plant, believing it to look “like illegality for the sake of illegality.”

Wyden introduced the Industrial Hemp Farming Act in January 2015. Passing the act will reclassify hemp and exclude it from the Controlled Substances Act. 12 senators from across the aisle have signed on, including Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul and Jeff Merkley.

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