LAS VEGAS, Jan. 15, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hemp, Inc. (OTC: HEMP) reports an update for the Industrial Hemp Industry. Senate Bill (SB) 134, to "legalize industrial hemp cultivation and production", was filed and assigned to a Congressional committee on Thursday, January 8, 2015 by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and co-sponsored by Senator McConnell (D-OR), Senator Merkley (D-OR), and, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). According to the news source, the bill titled "Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015" would "remove federal restrictions on the domestic cultivation of industrial hemp."

Bruce Perlowin, CEO of Hemp, Inc., said, "This is another step closer to full legalization. Industrial Hemp is really been taking off in the news lately, all over the country. This industry won't subside. SB 134 is a re-introduction of the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013 (SB 359) that was referred to the Committee in February of 2013. That didn't pass but that just goes to show you that you can't hold back the tide. The bill has been re-introduced and this time we are hoping that the Committee will push it through."

Hemp, Inc. executives say they are reveling in the industry's progression of what they believe will soon be full legalization for industrial hemp. Secretary of Hemp, Inc., Craig Perlowin commented, "The Industrial Hemp industry boasts the U.S. market for hemp is around $500 million per year and it will only go up from there. There are over 25,000 uses for industrial hemp, including food, cosmetics, plastics, bio-fuel and more. It's very disconcerting that the U.S. is the number one importer of hemp fiber for various products and the top two exporters are China and Canada. If we can buy it in America, we should be able to grow it in America."

"The U.S. ban on hemp farming is an outrageous restriction on free enterprise and does nothing but hurt economic growth and job creation," Sen. Wyden said. "Our bipartisan, common-sense bill is pro-environment, pro-business, and pro-farmer. Congress must act to empower farmers and boost economic activity across the country.

The four Senators, who sponsored SB 134, represent states that have "already defined industrial hemp as distinct from marijuana and removed barriers to production." That's state law. Federal law, however, requires industrial hemp research and pilot programs to obtain a waiver from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). If a waiver is not obtained, those programs risk possible raids and seizures by U.S. federal agents. SB 134 would, according to U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., "remove hemp from the Schedule I controlled substance list under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, and would define it as a non-drug so long as it contained less than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana."

Senator Rand Paul was quoted in a press release saying, "Allowing farmers throughout our nation to cultivate industrial hemp and benefit from its many uses will boost our economy and bring much-needed jobs to the agriculture industry." Many supporters of the legalization of industrial hemp believe that SB 134 has a better chance of passing because there are more people who are awakening to the difference between marijuana and hemp.

As industrial hemp becomes more favored among the masses, Hemp, Inc. executives say the company is "ahead of the game." Head of Investor Relations for Hemp, Inc., Jerry Cornwell, said, "The decision of Hemp, Inc. to shift the focus of the company to its decortication plant in North Carolina will put Hemp, Inc. years ahead of the Industrial Hemp industry. Not only is it the largest decortication plant in North America, but it was also purchased at the perfect time."

Cornwell continued saying, "The federal legalization of Industrial Hemp and Hemp, Inc.'s decortication line being reinstalled and operating in its new facility will probably happen simultaneously. I applaud Hemp, Inc.'s CEO Bruce Perlowin on making this bold move. He's a visionary and now years ahead of anyone else in processing hemp on a large scale. In conversations with Perlowin, we discussed how the decortication plant can be very profitable processing kenaf until the laws on hemp are changed in North Carolina. It's a brilliant migration strategy with the laws now apparently changing much sooner than we expected."

According to the Congressional Resource Service, the "United States is the only developed nation that fails to cultivate industrial hemp as an economic crop while farmers in other parts of the world grow hemp commercially for fiber, seed, and oil for use in a variety of industrial and consumer products, including food and clothing."

Thus far, over thirty countries produce industrial hemp, including China, Slovenia, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Canada, Chile, Egypt, New Zealand, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Romania, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine.

David Schmitt, COO of Hemp, Inc.'s wholly owned subsidiary Industrial Hemp Manufacturing, LLC, says he is "looking forward to the laws changing in North Carolina and the surrounding states and, in fact, all over America" and expects they will in the near future. "The decortication plant will already be set up and ready to manufacture and meet the demands of the industry. Once farmers can legally grow hemp, they will need someone to process it without the nuances of importing it from overseas."

Perlowin says, "Full legalization for the industrial hemp industry is a process and will take time. In 2014, U.S. lawmakers approved a farming bill which included a provision prohibiting the DEA from interfering with state-authorized hemp research programs. Although this was a relatively small step forward in the grand scheme of things, it makes it clear that U.S. lawmakers are, at the very least, willing to discuss and implement some sort of change to the nation's hemp and cannabis policies. With the introduction in the Senate of SB 134, we now see an even larger step forward for mankind."

HEMP, INC.'s TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE

Hemp, Inc. (HEMP) seeks to benefit many constituencies from a "Cultural Creative" perspective thereby not exploiting or endangering any group. Thus, the publicly-traded company believes in "upstreaming" of a portion of profit from the marketing of their finished hemp goods back to its originator as an interwoven piece of nature. By Hemp, Inc. focusing on comprehensive investment results—that is, with respect to performance along the interrelated dimensions of people, planet, and profits—our triple bottom line approach can be an important tool to support sustainability goals.

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