“The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food is considering a new rule that would allow some farmers to grow industrial hemp for research purposes. The rule was given initial approval on Tuesday by the state’s Agricultural Advisory Board.
The current law allows colleges and universities to grow industrial hemp for research purposes. Melissa Ure, the policy analyst for The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food said the proposed change to the law includes changing the language about colleges and universities.
This would allow anyone to grow it if they are properly certified by the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.
‘People always think that we made this rule change so that it’s the first step to legalization recreational marijuana, not even close,’ Ure said. ‘This is not what is taking place here. The other thing is that somehow this is related to the medical marijuana issue and this is not’.”
A great deal of evidence indicates that Utah’s climate would be a good fit for a hardy, drought-tolerant plant with literally tens of thousands of useful industrial applications, and that hemp farming could be a real boon to the state’s economy.
All in all a sound move by the state, so a big thumbs up from TRUCE.
For another take, here’s the article which appeared in the SL Tribune: http://ift.tt/2u6vGLp (an article whose headline did make it sound like a direct step towards medical cannabis, but the article is devoid of such verbiage.
It does point that the Utah Farm Bureau Federation is behind the measure and that USU will play a leading role in the roll out.
#MMJ #Hemp #Rearch #UTpol #Farming #TRUCE
http://ift.tt/2ukQXkn
See full article – Proposed Law To Allow More People To Participate In Hemp Research
