WASHINGTON, D.C. – Vote Hemp, the nation’s leading grassroots hemp advocacy organization working to change state and federal laws to allow commercial hemp farming, in coordination with Agricultural Hemp Solutions, will hold a Hemp Lobby Day on Capitol Hill, Thursday June 7, 2018, to push for the passage of the Hemp Farming Act of 2018. Hundreds of hemp business owners, entrepreneurs, farmers and advocates from across the country will meet with their Congressional representatives in Washington, DC, and rally support for full commercial legalization of industrial hemp farming, as the Hemp History Week campaign educates consumers nationwide about the benefits of this sustainable, versatile and historic crop. To register for this event, or to sign up for concurrent lobby efforts taking place in states across the country, please visit: https://goo.gl/forms/NwvxeZzQCgWpAgYw1.
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WHAT: |
Hemp Lobby Day |
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WHEN: |
Thursday, June 7, 2018, 9am to 5pm |
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WHERE: |
Lobby day meetings to take place in various Congressional members’ offices. |
| *Media are welcome to attend | |
Introduced on April 12, by Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), with strong support from Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), and further bi-partisan support from Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR). The Hemp Farming Act of 2018, if passed, would remove federal roadblocks on the cultivation of industrial hemp, the non-drug agricultural varieties of Cannabis. The bill currently has 21 cosponsors including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). The full text of the bill may be found at:
When passed, the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 will remove industrial hemp from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act and allows it to be regulated as an agricultural crop. The bill moves federal regulatory authority of hemp to USDA and requires State departments of agriculture to file their hemp program plans with USDA but allows them to regulate hemp cultivation per their State specific programs. In addition to defining hemp as cannabis that contains no more than 0.3% THC by dry weight, the bill asserts a ‘whole plant’ definition of hemp, including plant extracts. If passed, the bill would remove roadblocks to the rapidly growing hemp industry in the U.S., notably by authorizing and encouraging access to federal research funding for hemp, and remove restrictions on banking, water rights, and other regulatory roadblocks the hemp industry currently faces.
Furthermore, per Vote Hemp advocacy on the issue, The Hemp Farming Act of 2018 expands federally legal commercial hemp cultivation to tribal lands, reservations and U.S. territories—lands that had previously been omitted in Sec. 7606 of the Farm Bill, which allowed only for hemp farming programs in ‘States.’
To date, thirty-nine states have defined industrial hemp as distinct and removed barriers to its production. These states are able to take immediate advantage of the industrial hemp research and pilot program provision, Section 7606 of the Farm Bill: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
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Vote Hemp is a national non-profit organization dedicated to the acceptance of and a free market for industrial hemp and to changes in current law to allow U.S. farmers to once again grow hemp commercially.