New Government Spending Bill Tries To Prevent Tug-of-War Over Hemp Pilot Projects

WKU Public Radio
The new spending bill that made its way through Congress last week contains language that forbids the federal government from getting in the way of industrial hemp pilot projects being conducted in three states, including Kentucky.
http://wkyufm.org/post/new-government-spending-bill-tries-prevent-tug-war-over-hemp-pilot-projects

Federal spending bill adds hemp protection

The Courier Journal
A federal spending bill that could be signed into law as soon as today by President Barack Obama contains language to prevent bureaucratic maneuvering that could hurt industrial hemp research efforts in states like Kentucky.

Federal and Kentucky Department of Agriculture officials faced off last spring over shipments of hemp seed for research projects that were planned — and since have been conducted — in Kentucky as part of the Farm Bill that authorizes U.S. agriculture programs.

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/money/2014/12/16/federal-spending-bill-adds-hemp-protection/20479525/ 

Federal Spending Bill Prohibits DOJ from Undermining State Medical Marijuana and Hemp Laws

The Daily Chronicle
The final “cromnibus” federal spending bill that Congress passed over the weekend contains historic language prohibiting the U.S. Justice Department from spending any money to undermine state medical marijuana laws.

The spending bill also includes a bipartisan amendment that prohibits the DEA from blocking implementation of a federal law passed last year by Congress that allows hemp cultivation for academic and agricultural research purposes in states that allow it. It also contains an amendment allowing Washington, D.C.’s voter-approved initiative legalizing marijuana possession and home cultivation for personal use to move forward, but prohibits D.C. policymakers from using any local or federal 2015 funding to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol.

“For the first time, Congress is letting states set their own medical marijuana and hemp policies, a huge step forward for sensible drug policy,” said Bill Piper, director of the Drug Policy Alliance’s office of national affairs. “States will continue to reform their marijuana laws and Congress will be forced to accommodate them. It’s not a question of if, but when, federal marijuana prohibition will be repealed.”
http://www.thedailychronic.net/2014/39426/cromnibus-federal-spending-bill-prohibits-doj-from-undermining-state-medical-marijuana-and-hemp-laws/