Posted May 14, 2014
The Kentucky Department of Agriculture was prepared to
go to court to get 250 pounds of hemp seeds released to the state after they
were seized by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), but the DEA has now agreed to
issue a permit by the end of the week, according to an article by the Lexington
Herald-Leader available here.
The seeds, imported from Italy, were seized by the DEA
and are being held at a UPS warehouse in Louisville, according to an article by
WKMS available here. The DEA argued that a special permit is
needed from the agency, but KY Agriculture Commissioner James Comer disagreed.
“If you will look at the Farm Bill, it starts off
saying ‘Not withstanding any other federal laws.’ In spite of these other federal laws,
Congress intended that we still be allowed to do this,” said Holly VonLuerhte,
chief of staff for Comer.
“We’ve been told by agricultural experts if we don’t
have this industrial hemp seed in the ground by June 1, then the likelihood is
that it won’t come up,” said VonLuerhte.
“It looks like we’ve won this round,” Comer said in a
statement. Comer’s office “had
threatened to go to federal court Wednesday to seek an injunction to get the
seeds.” Now, it seems that won’t be
necessary, said VonLuerhte.
Kentucky will be the first state to cultivate hemp for
research projects permitted under the 2014 Farm Bill passed in February. Additional information on Kentucky’s pilot
projects is available here.
For more information, a recent report on hemp as an agricultural commodity from the Congressional Research Service is available on the National Agricultural Law Center's website here.
