Bipartisan congressional lawmakers have filed a new bill to reduce regulations on farmers that grow industrial hemp for non-extraction purposes.
Reps. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) are sponsoring the Industrial Hemp Act, which is a House companion to a Senate version that was introduced in March by Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Mike Braun (R-IN).
Hemp and its derivatives like CBD that contain no more than 0.3 percent THC by dry weight were legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill—and regulatory responsibility falls with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The new bill seeks to create a distinction between “industrial” hemp that’s grown for products like fiber and “hemp for any purpose” which would cover crops cultivated to extract cannabinoids like CBD.
Farmers who cultivate industrial hemp would no longer be subject to background checks in order to participate in the market, and they wouldn’t have to fulfill rigorous sampling and testing requirements.
Instead, they would simply have to go through an annual visual inspection, where they would need to demonstrate that they’re growing the crop for a purpose covered under the new “industrial hemp” definition. If they failed the initial visual review they would then need to provide
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