Governor Kristi Noem is digging in to her opposition for industrial hemp legalization.
In her weekly column, Noem says legalizing industrial hemp legalizes marijuana by default.
However, national cannabis industry experts say hemp and marijuana legalization have been going down different paths.
Governor Noem says as a farmer and rancher she would be thrilled to get a new crop into the hands of South Dakota producers, especially as markets struggle. She says a new source of revenue for farmers is great, but that industrial hemp is not the answer.
She says across the country, states with hemp are struggling to enforce marijuana laws because hemp and marijuana look and smell similar. She says her cabinet and other state government experts are looking into how other states handle hemp and implement their laws but come back with the same story… that cannabis laws are murky and unenforceable. She points to Texas and Ohio as examples.
All this is despite USDA clarification that states cannot prohibit interstate transportation of hemp.
Noem says the required tests could strain local prosecutors financially to the point of no longer prosecuting marijuana cases.
Morgan Fox is a spokesperson for the National Cannabis Industry Association. He says most states where marijuana is legal for medical and adult use did not talk about legalizing hemp until after the 2018 farm bill.
“States like Colorado legalize hemp when they legalized cannabis for adults. That was just kindof roped into it,” Fox says. “If you look at a state like Kentucky where they’ve had a legal hemp program on the books and in operation for years before the farm bill passed. They had one of the early experimental programs. They don’t’ even have an effective medical cannabis program.”
Montanta, North Dakota and Minnesota all havemedical cannabis programs. South Dakota is one of three states in the country that does not allow cultivation of hemp for commercial, research or pilot programs. A state legislative committee is conducting a summer study on the topic and will convene again in early October.