LOUISVILLE (AP) — Hemp seeds will be sprung from confinement and planted in Kentucky soil in coming days after federal drug officials approved a permit Thursday ending a standoff that had imperiled the state’s experimental plantings this spring, agriculture officials said.
Kentucky’s Agriculture Department expects to receive delivery of the shipment of seeds from Italy on Friday, state Agriculture Commissioner James Comer said. The state’s first hemp plantings in decades could occur as soon as this weekend, he said.
“This is a historic day,” Comer said. “We’ve done something that no one thought we could do a year-and-a-half ago. We legalized industrial hemp and we’ve proven that it’s an agricultural crop and not a drug.”
Kentucky’s eight pilot hemp projects for research were put on hold after the seed shipment was stopped by US customs officials in Louisville earlier this month. The state’s Agriculture Department then sued the federal government in hopes of freeing the seeds.
Growing hemp without a federal permit was banned in 1970 due to its classification as a controlled substance related to marijuana.
Hemp and marijuana are the same species, Cannabis sativa, but hemp has a negligible amount of THC, the psychoactive compound that gives marijuana users a high. Hemp’s comeback was spurred by the new federal farm bill, which allows state agriculture departments to designate hemp pilot projects for research in states such as Kentucky that allow hemp growing.
Justice Department spokeswoman Ellen Canale said Thursday the permit issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration authorizes the importation of 130 kilograms of hemp seeds.
The Justice Department was a defendant along with the DEA and US Customs and Border Protection in the lawsuit filed by Kentucky’s Agriculture Department. The breakthrough came a day after attorneys for the Agriculture Department and federal government met with a federal judge.
The legal entanglements wasted some prime planting days, Comer said.
Kentucky has been at the forefront of efforts to revive the versatile crop, and the lawsuit was closely watched in other states. Fifteen states have removed barriers to hemp production, according to the group Vote Hemp.
Vote Hemp spokeswoman Lauren Stansbury said the release of the seeds in Kentucky “sets enormous precedent.”
“We’ll continue to oppose the DEA’s claim to authority in this area, as federal authority over hemp cultivation must be rightfully acknowledged and administered under the US Department of Agriculture,” she said.
