Legislation to legalize industrial hemp production and CBD oil in Louisiana cleared the Senate Ag Committee on a 5-2 vote, but not without a list of amendments that heavily regulate both products.

It’s a key hurdle to clear for the proposal, as it received the backing of Senate Ag Chair Francis Thompson, who previously opposed the bill, but backed it after the regulations were added.

“There will be no shenanigans with marijuana being grown and hemp being used as a front for illegal activity.”

Governor Edwards says he backs industrial hemp regulation, and if he were to sign it into law the crop could be grown as early as 2020.

Not everyone was comfortable with the idea. Jonesborough Senator Jim Fannin says it could just be another financially risky fad, a fad with little peer-reviewed research available for interested farmers to study.

“We don’t have a lot of research in this state. Normally we do on most any crop that we have. I think that puts most anyone who would want to be a farmer of this type in jeopardy.”

The CBD regulations stipulate that the only CBD that can be sold in the state would be products that follow yet-to-be-established federal guidelines.

Ag Commissioner Mike Strain supports the efforts, including the new regulations that have been tacked on. He says the plant will be safe for growth because it must be tested within two weeks of its harvest for THC, and…

“Randomly and annually inspect the crop, and we must have a mechanism in place, approved by the USDA, for the destruction of any plant with over .3 percent THC.”

The bill heads to the Senate floor.

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