Colorado's Other Cannabis

When you hear the word cannabis it almost immediately brings an image to mind but some groups are saying that's not fair. There is another cannabis out there not used for smoking.

GRAY: Cannabis sativa L, with a THC concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis is also known as "industrial hemp" and hemp production in the U.S. has a long history of providing textiles and paper. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp while Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. Hemp production was effectively banned in the U.S. in the 1950's.

MARTIN: The Rocky Mountain Hemp Association is working to bringing back industrial hemp and helps connect farmers, processors, manufactures, researchers, investors and policy makers to accelerate the growth of the industry. Hemp is a cash crop that has a wide range of uses including medicines, flour, fuel, building materials, textiles, auto parts, animal feed and dozens of others.

GRAY: Estimates are that $581 million dollars of hemp products were sold in the U.S. during 2013. But all those positive things aside, the U.S. cannot seem to get their heads around hemp and have made a morass of the political process. Coloradans wanting to grow hemp don't have any legal, secure, industrial-scale source for seed. So even though growing hemp is now legal again, it has become a Catch-22.

MARTIN: A bi-partisan group of lawmakers are working on the issue and hope to see some positive movement on the issue this year. For a nation that is the top user of hemp products but banned from producing it...it seems progress will be slow.

And that's Colorado Ag Today. I'm Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.