New Mexico Senate Committee Votes to Legalize Hemp
New Mexico’s
Senate Conservation Committee has voted unanimously – 9 to 0 – to approve the Industrial Hemp Farming Act, a proposal to legalize the cultivation and production of industrial hemp. The committee voted to move the bill forward without recommendation.
If passed into law, the measure would allocate $100,000 to New Mexico State University to establish a seed bank and seed certification program for hemp cultivation. The measure would immediately legalize hemp cultivation for research purposes, and would allow the cultivation of hemp for industrial purposes once federal law changes. Senate Cisco McSorley, the bill’s primary sponsor, believes this will happen rather quickly; “We’re anticipating the federal government to OK production for commercial use in the next couple of months”, he says.
During a recent public hearing in the Conservation Committee, about a dozen people testified in favor of the bill, with no one speaking in opposition.
– TheJointBlog
