NH House voting whether to allow farmers to legally grow industrial hemp

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) � New Hampshire's House is again trying to protect industrial hemp from being tagged as an illicit drug.

The House is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a bill that would forbid industrial hemp, a botanical cousin to marijuana, from being listed as a controlled substance. The House tried last year to get the Senate to agree to a similar bill, but the Senate instead voted to study the measure.

Supporters say hemp was once an important crop in the United States, but has not been grown in New Hampshire for decades. They say the plant has lower levels of THC, a principal chemical in cannabis, than marijuana and can be used for a variety of non-illicit products.