Kentucky, feds battle over confiscated hemp seeds; DEA says growing is legal, but importing is not

Kentucky farmers are ready to begin planting hemp. The problem is getting their hands on the seeds. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who wrote the Farm Bill language for legalization of industrial hemp and is seeking re-election in Kentucky, has joined the fight, asking the Drug Enforcement Administration "to release 250 pounds of Italian hemp seeds that they have held for more than a week by U.S. Customs in Louisville," Janet Patton reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

"The Kentucky Department of Agriculture imported the seeds for university research projects, but the DEA has blocked their release, saying the state needs a controlled-substance import permit," Patton writes. "State Agriculture Commissioner James Comer on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in federal court in Louisville to force the Justice Department to turn them over. A hearing on the motion could come as early as Friday." DEA is part of the department; it deems illegal the seeds of cannabis sativa, which when raised for hemp contains very little of the psychoactive ingredient found in marijuana.

The Farm Bill "allows state departments of agriculture, in conjunction with colleges and universities, to grow industrial hemp for research purposes," as long as it contains less than 0.3 percent of the psychoactive ingredient, Patton notes. The DEA contends "that the language legalizes growing but does not address importation, so a controlled-substance permit is still required." They also "told Comer's office in a letter that the state and the universities cannot assign their authorities to grow hemp to private farmers."

"However, the state Agriculture Department, in its lawsuit, argues that the Farm Bill language specifically supersedes other federal laws, including the Controlled Substances Act and import/export restrictions," Patton writes.