No pot, but what about hemp in Ohio?

Ohio might not be ready for legalized marijuana, but at least one Hamilton County official thinks its more respectable cousin, hemp, has a future in the state.

Commissioner Todd Portune wants to set aside $100,000 in the budget next year for an "innovation center" that will, among other things, encourage the production of hemp for use in a wide range of consumer goods.

"It has great value as a cash crop," Portune said Tuesday. "It's incredibly useful."

Portune envisions urban hemp farms popping up all over the county and the state, providing cash to poor people and a valuable raw material to manufacturers, who can transform it into clothing, lotions, food products, construction materials and hundreds of other items.

There's only one catch: It's still illegal to grow hemp in Ohio. Portune and other hemp advocates say that's a silly vestige of the "reefer madness" days of the 1950s, when law enforcement treated hemp like marijuana. The two plants look similar, but hemp contains little to no THC, the chemical that gets marijuana users high.

Portune said the first step toward embracing hemp in the county is convincing state legislators to make it legal to grow it. The state already allows manufacturers to make stuff with hemp, it just doesn't permit farmers to grow it here.

Thirteen states do, however, including Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia. The Hemp Industries Association, a nonprofit trade association, says about $500 million in hemp products were sold in the United States in 2012.

Portune said Ohio and Hamilton County should get in on that action. Ohio voters shot down a proposal to legalize pot two weeks ago, but hemp advocates say educating Ohioans about how hemp is different would go a long way toward lifting the ban on hemp.