On March 20, when attorney Rod Kight learned that 22 state attorneys general, including North Carolina Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein, had just submitted a letter to Congress asking that lawmakers roll back many of the freedoms granted hemp producers and distributors in the 2018 Farm Bill, he felt blindsided.
As Congress prepares to embark on a five-year reauthorization of the Farm Bill, the letter asks that committees "address the glaring vagueness created in the 2018 Farm Bill that has led to the proliferation of intoxicating hemp products across the nation and challenges to the ability for states and localities to respond to the resulting health and safety crisis."
Though blindsided by the letter, Kight, a preeminent international cannabis attorney who represents hemp-related businesses around the country, including nearly 100 such businesses in North Carolina alone from his office in Asheville, was not surprised.
He has in recent years become accustomed to elected officials — persuaded by an odd lobbying consortium made up of anti-marijuana activists, big marijuana corporations, and law enforcement groups — have launched what he calls a "war on hemp," threatening what has become a $28-billion industry, according to an October 2023 Whitney Economics report.
Read more at qcnerve.com