Law-enforcement officials argue that marijuana could be hidden in hemp fields. But hemp would actually be a weapon against marijuana, Mahlberg said, because cross-pollinating with hemp would dilute marijuana's potency. In theory, marijuana pollen could also affect hemp. On March 3, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by Graves' group challenging the government's ban on hemp, because Kentucky state law forbids it too. But with their tobacco quotas slashed 28.8 percent this year, some farmers are giving hemp another look.
Farmers have their backs against the wall.
Tobacco earns more money, but diversifying into hemp makes sense to farmers because it could be processed locally, creating more work. Tribby Vice, a tobacco and dairy farmer in Fleming County, Ky., said hemp would provide healthy bedding for his 80 cows and would make a good rotational crop. We don't have to go out and buy new equipment. The farmers said they could live with the kind of controls that other countries impose. Canada requires that every hemp farmer have a license and police background check, use seed certified to produce 0.3 percent THC, report the precise location of his crop and open it for random inspection, Kime said.