Suit Seeks to Overturn Federal Ban on Hemp Farming
Farmers, a hemp company and a trade organization sued the government Friday to get the 26-year ban on growing industrial hemp lifted, contending that Congress never intended for it to be illegal.
The lawsuit by six would-be hemp farmers, the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative and the Hemp Co. of America contends hemp’s illegal status violates a 1937 determination by Congress that the plant doesn’t share the psychoactive effects of its cousin, marijuana.
Hemp growing was made illegal under the Controlled Substances Act of 1972.
Plaintiffs claim that the Drug Enforcement Administration’s hemp prohibition violates the constitutional doctrine of separation of government powers. Defendants are the DEA and the Justice Department, which said they had not seen the lawsuit.
Farmers have long complained that the government makes no distinction between marijuana and hemp, which supporters claim is a nearly perfect crop with uses ranging from medicine to rope.
Hemp and marijuana are both varieties of the cannabis plant. But hemp, which is grown commercially in some other countries, typically contains less than 1% of the active ingredient, THC, that makes pot smokers high.
Farmers in the South and Midwest view disease-resistant hemp as a rotation crop.
John Howell of the Hemp Co. said he has buyers who want hemp pulp for paper, its linen for cloth and its oil for medicine and lubricants.
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