An industrial hemp bill that sailed through the Kentucky Senate is facing a more skeptical House. The top House leader has doubts about the crop and a committee chairman has lots of questions. The bill's next stop is expected in the House Agriculture Committee. Its chairman, Tom McKee, hasn't made up his mind about the bill, which would regulate the crop if the federal government lifts its ban on hemp.
Hemp vanished from U.S. farms decades ago when the federal government classified it as a controlled substance related to marijuana. Hemp has a negligible content of the psychoactive compound THC.
Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer promotes hemp as a job creator. House Speaker Greg Stumbo says Comer hasn't shown that Kentucky agriculture could benefit from hemp.
