On Friday, May 15^th, a group of Kentucky farmers will file a federal lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the US Department of Justice in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. The lawsuit seek a series of declaratory judgments that would define the rights and obligations of Kentucky farmers seeking to produce industrial hemp. A news conference will be held immediately after the filing of the suit on the courthouse steps in Lexington, Kentucky.

The plaintiffs base their suit on three principal grounds:

3). Hemp and marijuana are botanically and legally distinct products of the cannabis plant and should be treated differently.

The plaintiffs in the case are small family farmers, principally tobacco growers, who are facing hard economic times and who would like to have the opportunity to explore industrial hemp for rural economic development. They are joined by the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association whose members want to produce industrial hemp and the Hemp Company of America which can guarantee a market for these farmers crop. Represented by leading New York attorney Michael Kennedy, the plaintiffs say that the only thing preventing them from farming industrial hemp is the fear that the federal government will charge them with growing marijuana and seize their farms.

The farmer-plaintiffs, citing an uncertain market and increasingly restrictive regulations, see industrial hemp, which was grown and marketed in Kentucky from colonial times through the 1930s, as a viable alternative. (A 1942 film produced by the Department of Defense, Hemp for Victory, praised Kentucky’s illustrious history of successful industrial hemp farming and encouraged Kentucky farmers to grow hundreds of acres of industrial hemp as a crop vital to the war effort.)

Grown by historic figures including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, industrial hemp is renowned as a multi-purpose and versatile plant. Its seed can be converted into food, oil, animal feed, and cosmetics. The fiber can be utilized textile, rope, carpets, paper products and construction materials. It is considered an environmentally rotational crop that is disease and pest-resistant. Remarkably, industrial hemp is one of the few crops that can be grown in all 50 states.

In this landmark lawsuit attorney Michael Kennedy describes the legislative history of the marijuana laws, first formulated in 1937 when the Marijuana Tax Act was passed. The complaint details how Congress specifically distinguished industrial hemp from marijuana.

The suit details the botanical and legal differences between industrial hemp and marijuana pointing to distinctions noted by the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Services. The case will also point out that under the international NAFTA and GATT agreement industrial hemp is recognized as a valid agricultural crop around the world.

The DEA argues that removing industrial hemp from regulatory control would enable marijuana growers to camouflage their product. However, contrary to their assertions, industrial hemp has been scientifically demonstrated to cross-pollinate with marijuana, diminishing its quality. In any event, industrial hemp has a minimal THC content, the psycho-active ingredient in marijuana.