Mitch McConnell used his hemp pen to sign the 2018 House and Senate Farm Bill Conference Report, which recently passed both chambers. It was reported McConnell offered use of his hemp pen to President Donald Trump when he signed the legislation into official law Dec. 20.
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 was kind to hemp enthusiasts and included language championed by McConnell, the U.S. Senate majority leader and Kentucky’s senior senator, to bolster the crop’s production and to officially remove hemp from the Controlled Substances Act, which means it will no longer be an illegal substance under federal law.
The language was a continuation of efforts first laid down in the 2014 farm bill, which opened the legal door to expanded hemp production research and pilot programs in the country, largely due to McConnell’s Kentucky-backed support for the crop at the time.
Kentucky wants to be the top hemp state, and industrial hemp is finding a small but solid footing in the state’s agricultural economy. According to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, in 2018, Kentucky’s farmers planted 6,700 acres of hemp, 3,200 acres more than they did in 2017. In 2016, they grew 2,350, and in 2015 grew 922 acres. In 2014, the first year of the program, they grew 33 acres.
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