McConnell: Willing to offer hemp bill to resolve ‘glitches’

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’s willing to offer follow-up legislation if needed to resolve any “glitches” as hemp starts a new era as a legal agricultural commodity.

The Kentucky Republican said Monday that includes safeguarding hemp shipments stopped by police who can’t tell whether they intercepted a legal crop or its illicit cousin, marijuana.

Some truckers hauling hemp have been arrested. The only way to distinguish hemp and marijuana is by measuring their tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and officers don’t have the testing technology to do so on the spot.

McConnell spoke at a hemp forum in Kentucky. U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Greg Ibach, who attended the conference, said USDA has reached out to drug enforcement officials to seek a “co-ordinated effort” on the interstate shipment of hemp.