Although the U.S. has solidly settled into a system of legal CBD and the market for hemp products across the country has continued to expand, not all jurisdictions are eager to get involved.
In Idaho, an 8-7 vote in a House of Representatives committee ended the progress of a bill that would have made the substance legal in the state. Idaho and Mississippi would remain the only states without legal protections for hemp use and cultivation if a South Dakota bill to allow the crop passes.
Idaho representatives are worried that passing the bill would lead to the acceptance of “marijuana-hemp culture” in the state, KTVB 7 reports. [2]
The state measure would have been a lower level affirmation of the 2018 Farm Bill that made industrial hemp legal at the U.S. federal level.
“We put so many sideboards on this … I think we could haul an elephant,” Rep. Caroline Nilsson Troy, R-Genesee, told the Statesman. “This is the bill that we tried to make so that it could work for everybody and work the most effectively for our farmers and our producers, but also for our law enforcement to protect our drug policies.” [1]
Still more are disappointed by the move in the Idaho House State Affairs Committee.
“Comparing marijuana and hemp is like comparing a house cat and a mountain lion,” business owner Rod Skyles told the Statesman. [1]
At the same time that Idaho’s House of Representatives voted against the CBD legalization measure, South Dakota’s legislature will continue evaluating a legalization measure of its own.
According to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, the South Dakota House passed its version of an industrial hemp legalization bill onto the state’s Senate this week with a vote of 58-9. [3]
Gov. Kristi Noem demanded that a final version of the bill include funding for the potential hemp program, including licensing and crop testing.
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