Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer is finalizing details for an upcoming trip to Washington, D.C., to try and get a federal waiver for industrial hemp. Earlier this year, Kentucky lawmakerspassed a bill setting up a regulatory framework for hemp growing in Kentucky. Comer promises to work at the federal level for legalization or a waiver.
And now, Comer says he'll be head to Washington the week after Derby meeting to meet executive branch officials and others.
"Very high level people in the Obama administration, very high people in Congress outside of Kentucky, then we'll have a meeting in Senator McConnell's office with the Kentucky delegation," Comer says.
U.S. House member from Kentucky, Brett Guthrie and Ed Whitfield, now support the hemp efforts, Comer says .That leaves U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers as the Kentucky delegation's only opposition to hemp.
