'This is an important victory for Kentucky’s farmers,' said McConnell. | JAY WESTCOTT/POLITICO McConnell high on hemp provision

The cannabis universities and colleges across the country could soon start growing isn’t the kind that tie-dye clad, 4/20-observing coeds might have hoped for.

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is pretty high on it.


The five-term Kentucky senator today is celebrating the inclusion, in the farm bill conference report, of language he promoted that would allow colleges, universities and state departments of agriculture to grow test plots of hemp for industrial uses. It’s a move that proponents are calling a first step toward large-scale cultivation of the crop.

Kentucky is on the top of the list of states to benefit from the change.

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“This is an important victory for Kentucky’s farmers, and I was pleased to be able to secure this language on behalf of our state,” McConnell said in a statement issued Tuesday. By giving states “the go-ahead to cultivate hemp for pilot programs, we are laying the groundwork for a new commodity market for Kentucky farmers. By exploring innovative ways to use hemp to benefit a variety of Kentucky industries, while avoiding negative impact to Kentucky law enforcement’s efforts at marijuana interdiction, the pilot programs authorized by this legislation could help boost our state’s economy.”

The research title of the farm bill conference report, released Monday, allows for colleges, universities and agriculture departments in states that have legalized the cultivation of industrial hemp to grow the crop for research purposes.

Industrial hemp is defined by the bill to contain no more than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol — the mind-altering ingredient contained in its even more controversial cousin, marijuana.

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Any kind of boost to Kentucky’s economy that McConnell can put his name next to could come in handy for the 71-year-old Republican, who could face a tough reelection bid this year as both Democrats and members of his own party seek to take his seat.

McConnell won’t get all of the credit for taking the steps needed to legalize hemp research, however. His hemp provision in the farm bill conference report stems from an amendment to the House version of the bill championed by Reps. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), though their language only granted permission to colleges and universities, not state agriculture departments.

McConnell was made aware of the House amendment as the two farm bills were headed to conference, a source with knowledge of the farm bill negotiations told POLITICO. It is one of very few provisions that was not in both the House and Senate versions of the legislation that made it into the final bill, added the source, who has requested anonymity.

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Getting a hemp measure included in the farm bill took considerable effort, the source said. Staff from McConnell’s office and the House sponsors of the amendment had to educate other lawmakers who were often skeptical about allowing what has been long considered a controlled substance to be cultivated even for research purposes.

The cultivation of industrial hemp has become a pretty weedy topic in recent years.

Hemp is bred to contain far less tetrahydrocannabinol than marijuana and was widely grown in the United States until the mid-1900s. The plant, which historians say was grown by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, was cultivated mainly for rope fibers, paper and textiles that were often used as ship sails.

Farmers abandoned hemp in the mid-1900s due to stringent federal restrictions. And lawmakers failed to include an exemption for hemp in the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, sounding a death knell for domestic production of the crop.

But interest in industrial hemp has grown in recent years, following the discovery of its potential nutrition benefits in food and as a component in composite materials and biofuel source material. Sales of hemp products in the U.S. reached $500 million in 2012, according to Eric Steenstra, president of Vote Hemp, which lobbies for the legalization of the product.

“All of that’s coming from imported material,” Steenstra said. “It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that really all our trading partners can grow these crops [but U.S. farmers can’t]. I think there is no question that hemp could be a multibillion-dollar market [in the United States].”

Already 10 states have legalized cultivation of hemp — including Kentucky, Colorado and California — and 11 more are set to consider bills on the issue during their 2014 legislative sessions. The initiatives follow an August 2013 Justice Department memo in which the Obama administration left policing the cultivation of industrial hemp off a list of marijuana enforcement priorities. Since then, states have been quick to interpret that as a green light to move ahead with laws allowing the crop.

However, it’s not quite that simple. Hemp and hemp seeds are still considered a controlled substance and cannot be imported — meaning farmers in states that have industrial hemp laws on the books have no access to the crop, Steenstra said. Farmers also can’t insure hemp crops because of the federal restrictions. Complicating the issue further are concerns that new strains of hemp need to be developed to best grow in U.S. soils, given no work has been done domestically on the crop for more than a half-century.

That’s where the farm bill provision comes in.

“We feel like this is an important first step” to large-scale cultivation, Steenstra said. “I don’t think there is much question that there is a market, that it can be grown here. … At this point, I think the need is for research” and answering the question of “how we can get back into the game.”