One item in the recently enacted Farm Bill is the legalization of hemp farming. The law incorporates Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (KY-R) Hemp Farming Act of 2018, which took hemp off of the Controlled Substances Act. It’s the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s job to put the farm bill into action. (In general, the law deals with programs that include rural development, conservation, and nutrition as well as farming.) Also, it enables hemp producers to obtain Federal crop insurance. (McConnell signed the Farm Bill Conference Report with a pen made from hemp.)

In a December 2018 speech, McConnell stated:

“Last year alone, Kentucky hemp recorded more than $16 million in product sales through the State pilot program I previously secured, demonstrating that hemp holds great potential for the future of Kentucky agriculture. My Hemp Farming Act … will not only legalize domestic hemp, but it will also allow State departments of agriculture to be responsible for its oversight.”

For the purposes of the new law, hemp is defined as:

“the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant, including the seeds thereof and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.”

For more background, see the October 2014 issue of Congressional Digest on “Marijuana Policy”  and the May 2001 issue of Supreme Court Debates on “Medical Use of Marijuana.”