On Friday, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced that he's signing on as a cosponsor of a hemp legalization bill introduced last month by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). McConnell's legislation, which already has 10 other senators signed on, would remove hemp from the definition of marijuana, its psychoactive cousin, under the Controlled Substances Act. McConnell's hemp bill would remove restrictions on banking access, water rights and other roadblocks that hemp farmers and processors currently face. McConnell has often touted the economic benefits that hemp cultivation can bring to rural areas, including in his home state of Kentucky. "We all are so optimistic that industrial hemp can become sometime in the future what tobacco was in Kentucky's past," he said when first announcing the bill.

Source: Forbes May 05, 2018 18:33 UTC