P.S.: there is always hope, even for the GOP.

BTW, P.S. stands for 'pig $hit'.

The Chamber of Commerce supports legalization, but some law enforcement groups say it is a step that could lead to the legalization of marijuana.

Hopefully that would be the case. Law enforcement are just trying to drum up fear so they can make more money in drug raids, overtime, etc. Legalize marijuana now.

The debate over legalization of hemp is contentious in Kentucky. The Chamber of Commerce supports legalization, but some law enforcement groups say it is a step that could lead to the legalization of marijuana.

Shouldn't these law enforcement groups in Kentucky be more concerned with finding meth labs? Kentucky consistently ranks in the top 5 states for meth labs.

Meth vs. Marijuana

Where should limited taxpayer resources be spent?

Wow.. He must have found a way that he could make money off of this... which lobbyist convinced him

No surprise. McConnell has always seemed pretty stoned.

It is industrial hemp, not the kind you smoke. This is one of the best ways to help beat our petroleum addiction.

Proponents of industrial hemp tout its many legal uses, such as in soap, cosmetics, and rope for sailboats and other watercraft

Yeah, before such industrial hemp is even used for these other purposes, it will have been consumed by people on site (in the soap factory or sailboat manufacturer).

Pigotry, go back to bed. Please. Grown ups are discussing ways to get this country moving forward.

Well -- it Senator filibuster finds out President Obama is for it, he then will be against it.

Satanick, don't forget drug forfeiture laws. Lots of money to be made there that doesn't show up in the budget.

stonepipe2

Does this mean, we could cut the 54 BILLION that we give to the fossil fuel industry annually? I am tired of paying higher taxes so that corporations making record profits can keep more of them.

P.S. Does this also mean the GOP will lose more lobbyist money from big oil?

Industrial hemp is just that. Do you want to smoke that? Nothing has been said anything about personal use possession or medical marijuana. Please don't get excited over this. Its a step in the right direction but who would want to trust mitch mcconnell and rand paul. Plus law enforcement gets a big paycheck from the D.E.A. to eradicate marijuana so they are going to say anything so they don't lose a dime of their budget to keep it illegal.

In 1942 the US government aggressively subsidized the cultivation of industrial hemp for the war effort. You might want to take a couple of minutes to watch the short video, produced by the US Government, called "Hemp for Victory" (easily found on you tube). Acres of 15 ft tall plants as far as the eye could see. Kentucky was one of many states involved in the legal production of industrial hemp.

Uhm....

but some law enforcement groups say it is a step that could lead to the legalization of marijuana.

Why do they care? They are law enforcement.

Great news. The Party of free market capitalism and economic growth is embracing an industry that will attain both.

Arthur: You've got that right! Personally, I'd love to see all hemp legalized. As it is now, the criminalization of marijuana is nothing but a shell game to keep law enforcement employed. As with Prohibition, you can't stop what the people want. All you can do is legalize it and bring it under the ordinary rules of commerce or make criminals out of people who really aren't criminals, but want to make the choices of what to do that doesn't affect other people themselves.

It's About Time, I hope so. Back in the 60's (19) the DEA came to our farm and said "Get rid of that hemp pronto".

Arthur66

"Great news. The Party of free market capitalism and economic growth is embracing an industry that will attain both."

Free market what ? Nothing is free in any market. As with the prices of gas...competition among companies is a mith....can not wait then if hemp is grown legally how high the price of it would go and would there really be any competition in industry for it..or..like everythng else..the price would just go up. As for the illegal use of hemp...indians used it long before we folks got here....wonder if theirs was considered commerical or just usable?

Finally GOP comes up with something I can support!

Hemp rulez!

The whole War On Drugs has been an abysmal failure.
There are more deaths today due to drug-related violence than before the stupid War On Drugs.
We didn't have half the problems we do today back in the 1960's when casual drug use was tolerated.
LEGALIZE and TAX NOW !!

.

myname123

Wow, we finally found something we can agree on. Its time that we kick out all lobbyists, special interest groups, corporate dogs, and union thugs from buying our congress. While were at, let's put everyone in Congress on minimum wage and cut their health care benefits

stonepipe2

Me too. I personally feel its time to end these big subsidies across the board as well as putting caps on social welfare programs that are abused. If we did, maybe we could all keep our taxes just a bit lower.

Hemp could be a huge cash crop for the US, and it could also figure prominently in achieving our green energy goals. Google hemp fuel. FINALLY something we can agree on!

McConnell is a faker - this is a last ditch effort to hold onto his seat. While it is great that he may publicly support hemp, he still does more damage than good for this country.

I'd heard about this a few days ago on another site and I was wondering when NBC would pick it up.

I realize this bill is aimed at legalizing it for industrial uses, but hopefully we are seeing the beginning of the end of the "war on drugs".

How about the judgement of a moron judge in Arizona. The effects of smoking weed can be detected in the bloodstream up to a month afterwards. In this judge's opinion a blood test that detects this byproduct can be used to convict someone of DUI, weeks later! This is a new low in the insane drug war and the idiot puritans who enforce it. The people voted for medical marijuana use and this moron judge overturns lower court rulings to give law enforcement further means to harass and convict medical marijuana users.

first off, i am a liberal (I). not a Libtard like the others posting on here that don't know a single fact when it comes to hemp, they are just here trolling because a republican came out with this idea (sad thing is they are trying to say the people on the right would be against this if Obama came out with it, when they are doing the same damn thing just because one of the leaders of the party they hate came out to endorse it!!).

The legalizing of hemp used to be a lib cause, it is an amazing plant(second only to its psychoactive cousin marihuana) that as others have stated can be used to make numerous products from the material to manufacture a vehicle to the fuel to run it. This is a very good idea regardless of which said came out for it, those that are for marihuana legalization in order to tax it to help our country's recovery should be for this, as well as those that are against marihuana should be for this as hemp contains less than .3% THC(if u don't know what that is you shouldn't be posting here, go troll something else), which makes it impossible to get any kind of high from it. It would be akin to going outside and trying to smoke leaves off of your pecan tree. This could be used as a major cash crop to help our country pull us out of the hole we are in, if u can not see that through your bigotry of partisan politics, than you are less of an american than those you rally against!

There are more than 40 different strains of hemp, the most commonly used is Cannabis oglalas which has less than .2% of THC in it, compared to Cannabis Sativa or Cannabis Indica which are the two strains that are considered Marihuana that have 20+% for "chronic/high grade" or somewhere between 10 and 15% of THC concentration for "swag/mexican dirt weed".

So you are right that hemp is a cannabis plant, but it is not Cannabis Sativa as you say, for those that are afraid of this opening up legalization of sativa or indica plants, it is only possible if the law introduced is insanely vague on what is being allowed, a simple line saying that the sativa or indica strains will still be illegal to grow would solve this, or better yet state that only cannabis plants containingless than 1% THC concentration are legal to grow.

Come on people other nations have easily made this distinction and have been producing hemp while still maintaining the ban on marihuana, in fact we the U.S.A. are their biggest customers, importing more hemp than any other nation.

Those that continue to argue that hemp=marihuana are being willfully ignorant and just plain decietful and they know it.

medical marihuana is not a scam, cannabis sativa and cannabis indica have many chemical compounds that are useful as pain relievers/appetite inducers/mental stabilizers and many other useful medical applications, the list grows every year with more and more studies that our now being allowed since the legalization of medical marihuana. There is still much that this plant can do that we are just discovering, it could very well be mankinds panacea.

Even though there are those people and doctors that abuse the medical laws to insure they can safely use for recreation, does not make the entire program a scam. Name one government law or program that isn't abused in one way or another in this country of ours?

got news for you, these libtards and this liberal are already smoking the real stuff so why would we want the fake stuff?!?

This is just sane and common sense policy(you know the kind of policy both sides say should be implemented), those that are for our countries recovery can easily see this why cant you? You are letting the childhood boogieman stories of a harmless plant dictate your reasoning regarding another useful harmless crop.

i apologize if my last comment came off as an attack towards you, it was not my intentions and thank you for your acknowledgement in your post 1.32.

stonepipe2

It's About Time, I hope so. Back in the 60's (19) the DEA came to our farm and said "Get rid of that hemp pronto".

The DEA was formed in 1973, so no, they didnt come to your farm in the 60's.

yes like i said i know there are people who abuse the system, what system isn't? i know people that are using the law for legitimate reasons as cancer is prevalent in my family, also my sister in-law uses for her MS, my buddy came back from iraq and is using it to help anxiety issues from his PTSD, and lastly my cousin and a friend are abusing the law to smoke without worry of being arrested for their self perceived pursuit of happiness (i would do the same if i wasnt concerned with being in a government database as a user, as this could cause issues with my job). Regardless this doesn't change my views on the usefulness of medical marihuana or the good that it does.

Everyone knows that Touche Turtle thought it said "hump" when he signed on... And thought it was Rue Paul that was in favor of it too.

Normally I wouldn't agree with anything the Turtle and his side kick Reich's Marshal Rand Paul have to say. In this instance I agree with them; hemp should have never been made illegal in the first place. I have to say one thing though since it was the Republicans that made hemp illegal in the first place maybe they should mention that fact too.

The Republicans are very good at passing laws that criminalize things that most people do or use because it serves their political ends. If these right wing hypocrites think this one action will change everyones mind about their fascist ways then they should think again.

Industrial hemp was grown here qnd in Mexico during WW2 for a variety of uses. It was later banned again because there was fear that kids would get a hernia trying to get high from it. :-)

I have smoked good weed for 67 years and my doctor thinks I might live to be a hundred. I'm 81 now and am very fit and able.

When are we going to quit taking the word of government people and those that control them and find out for ourselves what's is good or bad.

The negative side to getting high, according to an executive with a large business, is that some folks are stupid and get high before leaving for work and then decide not to show up. There are always two sides to everything except the bullsh!t we get from people with stern agendas. Always check things out yourself and do not take anyone's word about anything. Don't believe me either. Check out what I've said.

Baddog, I am proud of you, you caught my slip up something I caught after I posted. Rest assured it was not the local weed inspector. And there was an agency ahead of the DEA, could not think of it.

Now Industrial Hemp is a "Vice?" The "Land of the Free" is the only industrialized country in the world where Hemp for food, fiber, paper, construction materials, clothing and, yes, fuel. In fact, anything you can make with hydrocarbons (petrochemicals) you can make with carbohydrates (Hemp). Except, of course, a toxic oil spill. You can put hemp oil on your salad. Try that with gasoline.

Here, in my home of Kentucky, our most well known industries are cigarettes, booze and gambling (horse racing). We used to be known as the Hemp State, because the growing conditions are outstanding for the production of hemp seed, which was sold to the many other states which grew industrial hemp for industrial feedstock. Why not let a positive industry grow here?

The Middle East has oil, and we send billions of dollars "over there" to run our country. Much of that money is used to finance terrorist activity here, and around the world. Kentucky has the chance to take the lead in returning to a saner reality, where the money spent on fuel and quality alternatives of the various petrochemical, chemical and pharmaceutical product derivatives go not to foreign countries through the centralized US banking system in Wall Street, but to regional and local banks. This is because Hemp processing plants, in order to be economical, need to be within 50 miles of the Hemp farms. Supporting Main Street, not Wall Street, is the real threat of Industrial Hemp.

And, as far as the claim that Hemp is illegal, according to the Congressional Research Service:

"Strictly speaking, the CSA [Controlled Substances Act] does not make growing hemp illegal; rather, it places strict controls on its production and enforces standards governing the security conditions under which the crop must be grown, making it illegal to grow without a DEA permit."

Google it yourself:

--- Hemp as an Agricultural Commodity --- Renée Johnson

--- Specialist in Agricultural Policy December 18, 2012

Great post, RWD. Hemp helped win WWII.

stonepipe2

Great post, RWD. Hemp helped win WWII.

Actually when Moses declared receiving the 10 Commandments from GOD, he was also a bit high too. What a great thing...I mean the Moses Laws, not hemp.

This makes total sense, because today, if you declare the same thing (receiving sth from GOD), your friend will respond with: What? R U a little high?

Whaaaaaat????? R U Stupid?

I agree that industrial hemp is a useful crop. But it will never replace oil because the oil industry won't allow it. And, as a fuel. its still carbon based. I can't help but think that if President Obama had made this stand, McConnell would have railed about his lack of morals and ties to drug dealers.

Tag, even though it is carbon based it is above ground carbon. In other words the carbon comes from CO2 in the air thereby reusing the same thing that may be causing "global warming". Even a lot of non-tree huggers think the problem comes from releasing carbon from the ground, not reused from the air we humans exhale. It is the way photosynthesis works.

Hemp is not pot, you don't smoke hemp. Seeing that politicians could not see that difference for so many decades just reinforces my belief that politicians should not be deciding anything, be it medical, education, or anything else that affects Americans.

Big difference between 'carbon-based fuel' and 'fossil fuel'. This would be a renewable resource.

@ Pigotry

“If your children ever find out how lame you really are, they'll murder you in your sleep.”

Hey, Pigotry, there's nothing new about hemp. George Washington's diaries discuss his experiences cultivating it. It was possible to obtain a license to grow hemp in the US right up until Congress banned it in 1970.

I know this is long, bear with me please!

Hemp was made illegal, not because of its drug addiction threat, but simply because of the threats it posed to the cotton and paper industries. Who knew the only way to force this great competition out of the game, was to get our own government to do their dirty work for them.

It is one of the very first crops to be domesticated, 12,000 years ago.It requires no herbicides, and far fewer pesticides then any other crops. With very high yields of 25 tonnes per hectare (25t/ac). Where a typical average yield in large scale modern agriculture is about 2.5–3.5t/ac

Hemp has an amazing variety of uses.Its seeds can be eaten raw, used in cereals, hemp flour for baked goods like any flour, waffles, or sprouted. Made into hemp milk (akin to soy milk), ice cream, tofu, nut butters, protein power drinks.It's also the only plant with all the essential amino acids we need.

Oil is used for bio-fuels, cosmetics, lotions, cooking, painting,The plant is used in various cording and ropes, textiles, clothing,paper, building construction, insulation material, furniture construction, bird and pet food, litter, bedding, mulch, biodegradable plastics and hemp seed as bait for fishing!

Since the inner two fibers are more woody, typically they are mixed with other materials then applied in industrial applications. Who would have thought this lowly plant, well, actually it can grow up to fourteen feet or taller, could give us all these wonderful uses.

Oh wait, this gets even better.Hemp,can be used as a "mop crop" clean out impurities from wastewater, such as sewage effluent, excessive phosphorus from chicken litter, or other unwanted substances or chemicals. Hemp is being used to clean contaminants at the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site. This is known as phytoremediation - the process by the cleaning radiation as well as a variety of other toxins from the soil, water, and air. It's about time our government stop being paranoid, and bet behind using this wonderful plant, stop wasting tax dollars on a foolish ban, that could have so many wonderful uses in our country, and help so many folks. Thanks for reading all of this! :-D

Mr. Windancersong;

Thank you for the enlightenment, I never realized it had so many benefits/uses.

And on a personal note, back in the late '70's as I was riding thru Indiana I noticed some "familiar" looking herbage on the roadside, I pulled over and sure enough it looked like what I thought it was and proceeded to indulge, or so I thought. An hour later an Indiana State Trooper pulled up and took one look at me and in formed me that during the war the local farmers raised hemp to be sent to the shipyards and what I had sampled was a 30th generation feral growth of that production. He didn't bust me, he just shook his head and said to enjoy my 3 day headache I was going to start to have.

Well GMWDS, a voice of reason once more. How nice to scroll down and see your post.

Hemp's cousin Pot only became illegal when prohibition ended in the 1930s. The by-then-massive FBI needed something new to justify their existence and began the "Refer Madness" campaign.

I would rather for Kentucky to grow hemp than for them to grow tobacco.

Hello stonepipe2 Delightful to see you once more! Hope you are doing well, and will have a wonderful weekend! Always appreciate your insights and thoughtful comments:-D.

Seems to me, I recall Jim Stafford's song about the Wild Wood Weed. Kept hearing it as I posted my comments, True there is that side for many who want to make pot legal. But with so many healthful, beneficial uses, it truly is a shame to deny farmers the right to produce it and keep the rest of us profiting in so many areas of our life from it.

WDS- at least you got a half way cool song. I have Mary Poppins (I think) A doe, a deer, a female deer stuck in my head from a post last week.

AAAAHHHHHHH damn you stonepipe2......now that song is in my head.................

It really sucks doesn't Kevin? But on the plus side I seem to have gotten the spring back in my step!

It would be reasonable and appropriate for law enforcement agencies to argue, if they believe it to be true, that the legislation would make it more difficult for them to enforce existing marijuana laws. But I agree with you that the argument that they are making -- that it could lead to marijuana legalization -- is inappropriate.

Besides, it's a stupid argument anyway: There just isn't any logical reason to believe that legalizing industrial hemp will somehow lead inexorably to legalizing marijuana -- whether you are for or against pot legalization.

Law enforcement has to protect their phony baloney jobs.

yeah...drug and other arrests move a lot of people into prison labor who produce things for no pay. At the same time, the prisons also get tons of tax money to maintain. It's big business.

Because law enforcement has become so corrupted and no longer serve and protect the people. They serve their themselves and their masters. Corrupted politicians and big corporations and private prison etc... It's about $$ and control and cheap china labor here.

Why wouldn't they be against it? They make a lot of money off it being illegal. Law enforcement doesn't want less laws, they want more.

Do any of you Libtards think before you speak? This article is about INDUSTRIAL hemp.

Hey, stonepipe2 (#6.4)

Do any of you Libtards think before you speak? This article is about INDUSTRIAL hemp.

So typical a human! Often when the selfish human wants something selfish, he always claims his selfish thing has greater purpose and is for the entire humanity. This is yet another evidence. Remember Bush went into Iraqi war to avenge Saddam's alleged attempt to assassinate his father. But Bush claimed freedom as the purpose - 'Operation Iraqi Freedom'?

.

And, we Liberals are performing a great lib service.

Pigotry, you know not what you speak of. Get it through your thick skull, INDUSTRIAL HEMP. It is not something for social consumption, unless you love a 24 hour headache.

"INDUSTRIAL HEMP. It is not something for social consumption, unless you love a 24 hour headache."

Ahhh! But INDUSTRIAL HEMP is cannabis sativa. Once made legal, then all cannabis sativa will be legal.

A rose by any other name.......

Do any of you Libtards think before you speak? This article is about INDUSTRIAL hemp

Stonepipe2.... This article is about a senator trying to find favor with a segment in Kentucky that sees profit in the cultivation and sale of Marijuana. You may call it industrial or Medical.... you may even capitalize each letter for effect but the bottom line is still the same.

Industrial hemp is pot and many individuals that grow hemp will certainly also grow for human consumption. Not that I have a problem with that but I do like to keep it real and cut through McConnell and others BS.

The strict prohibition of Marijuana is driven by the desire of some to make a lot of money. Some make money by simply selling the product, legally or illegally while others make money enforcing laws that protect no one and prosecuting no-violent individuals who simply enjoy smoking marijuana.

I know I am a libtard so you have to excuse my ignorance but I just can't understand why an easily grown plant would retail for nearly $5,000.00 per pound.

first off, i am a liberal (I). not a Libtard like the others posting on here that don't know a single fact when it comes to hemp, they are just here trolling because a republican came out with this idea (sad thing is they are trying to say the people on the right would be against this if Obama came out with it, when they are doing the same damn thing just because one of the leaders of the party they hate came out to endorse it!!).

The legalizing of hemp used to be a lib cause, it is an amazing plant(second only to its psychoactive cousin marihuana) that as others have stated can be used to make numerous products from the material to manufacture a vehicle to the fuel to run it. This is a very good idea regardless of which said came out for it, those that are for marihuana legalization in order to tax it to help our country's recovery should be for this, as well as those that are against marihuana should be for this as hemp contains less than .3% THC(if u don't know what that is you shouldn't be posting here, go troll something else), which makes it impossible to get any kind of high from it. It would be akin to going outside and trying to smoke leaves off of your pecan tree. This could be used as a major cash crop to help our country pull us out of the hole we are in, if u can not see that through your bigotry of partisan politics, than you are less of an american than those you rally against!

There are more than 40 different strains of hemp, the most commonly used is Cannabis oglalas which has less than .2% of THC in it, compared to Cannabis Sativa or Cannabis Indica which are the two strains that are considered Marihuana that have 20+% for "chronic/high grade" or somewhere between 10 and 15% of THC concentration for "swag/mexican dirt weed".

So you are right that hemp is a cannabis plant, but it is not Cannabis Sativa as you say, for those that are afraid of this opening up legalization of sativa or indica plants, it is only possible if the law introduced is insanely vague on what is being allowed, a simple line saying that the sativa or indica strains will still be illegal to grow would solve this, or better yet state that only cannabis plants containingless than 1% THC concentration are legal to grow.

Come on people other nations have easily made this distinction and have been producing hemp while still maintaining the ban on marihuana, in fact we the U.S.A. are their biggest customers, importing more hemp than any other nation.

Those that continue to argue that hemp=marihuana are being willfully ignorant and just plain decietful and they know it.

If you study history of drugs you can actually see things like hemp and marijuana where only made illegal because they where favored by minorities it was actually a way to stop minorities from stealing the jobs. This is still the case today why do you think things like cocaine have less hash penalties then other drugs? Because its favored by the wealthy. Although in some states Marijuana laws are a lot less strict then they used to be.

True, during depression when jobs were few that's one reason how it started. Then all the other sinister lies piled on during the years and you get every excuse except a good true one.

He IS a great herbal american. ;)

no willie would be our marihuana czar when it is finally decriminalized, our hemp czar should be woody harrelson since he has been one of the most active citizens when it comes to hemp legalization and awareness.

Hemp is can be made into one of the softest materials to being made 7x stronger than steel.

Speakers are poor quality today but thats adequate for the poor quality sound of MP3's.

Your rant is commendable; fgt4urights

I personally don’t know who has and who hasn’t smoked pot,which has made profound differences to our nation and even the people of the world.
But what this article, topic and your statements are about is defiantly liberty,
individualism, and the human power to make decisions based on truth and the ability
to decipher those decisions from fiction. Our Government was simply established
to protect and maintain individual rights. Laws in fact are supposed to be written
so big business and or a majority couldn’t railroad the rights of an
individual, and just the opposite is what we have been faced with for decades.
Laws are written to protect big business and the majority from the individual.
Hemp has nothing to do with the turn our country has taken; it’s simply just
another story of many stories of how power is winning over the ever so growing
weak individual. I’d hope peonage will never return, but evolution of mankind certainly
could head down a path in which we are all slaves to the whims and desires of
the rich and powerful via the control of our food, water, housing, travels and
our choice of labor. So when you’re saying “wake up people” I'm hoping people
are listening, I’m hoping our supreme court is listening. I want people to vote
for people they know, not people put in front of them to farther the agenda of
the party leaders. President Obama said in his State of the Union address that so
many need a vote, I agree liberty needs a vote; freedom needs a vote and more
than all Life needs a vote.

wantnot,

Completely agree. It is human nature for the powerful few to seek control and complete dominion over the masses. The only reason we have need for a democratic government of laws is to combat the negative human nature (present in some form) in all of us.

I believe we are at a critical juncture in the preservation of our young country. We must all stand as one in a peaceful process to reverse the serious damage inflicted on us, especially in the last 30 years. Divide and conquer tactics by the powerful and wealthy few have worked far too well. It is time to stand united or lose it all.

I agree with both of you, and yes wantnot it's about all those things you mentioned. Hemp, marijuana is just a tool they use to control us all and further their agenda with their new military law enforcement we are now under. They say it's for our protection, it's not. Supposedly no money for poor, sick, or infracture to rebuild this broken country. Always one sneeze from country completely going down toilet because of greed, and who pays for it. Then each state spends millions if not billions on cameras and surveillance that sprung up while we slept all around and growing. It won't stop growing. Don't know where any of you live but i'm in FL. and this is a military police state where you are being watched and surveillenced from the skies at levels never seen before. This entire country sold itself out and we are becoming like countries we use to sadly laugh at about their freedoms like China or Russia. Corporations, politicians, and private unknown companies have destroyed this country and placed sinister laws on us for control. Puppet politicians run by corporations and lobbiests to write corrupt laws to enslave us all and enrich themselves. Banks to big to fail and laws for you and i, but none for "them". A select few have powers over us all. We don't have true democracy or freedom just told we do and not to question. Never before in history has a government or group of people had technology so advanced as to control and watch us all at one time. It won't get better, but worse and no one to turn to or keep this in check. It's past out of control if you knew what i know. Some people will say the Bible told of this, some will say 1984 is past here, some will say it's the illuminati controling us and some will say it's other entities. What i do know is no matter what, or who it is... it ALL leads to a dark, sinister agenda with NOTHING good about it. Everything this country stood for and the people of past and present who died for our so called freedoms would have died in vain as we helped sell out this country and seal the deal for at least not asking questions and speaking out. So if i could at least WAKE UP one person i did my part. So i appreciate your gesture wantnot and anyone else. We are really the silent majority, just want peace and honesty in this short life we are all trying to understand while were here.

Grim assessments by the three of us. I have unwavering faith in the hearts and minds of the American people to turn this thing around despite some of the nonsense we read on this board. Anonymity breeds contempt and angry words where face to face meetings result in restraint, reason and logical conclusions. Still, some of us must ring the warning bells for those too timid to actively get involved before it's too late. Thank you.

their's a forth,, Governor Beshear of Kentucky is hell bent on a state wide cigarette smoking ban in that states legislature,, WITHOUT VOTER APPROVAL,, so the tobacco industry in Kentucky has been, and is on it's way out,,,,

your right about one thing though,, $$$$$ are attached,,,,

No, cause he's the person i don't want smoking. He would only give herb a bad name. It always gets blamed for dumb people using it. They were dumb before it, after using it and will always be dumb. There is no help or cure for dumb. Unfortunately for herb EVERY race, religion, gender, brilliant, smart, and yes dumb people use it . EVERY category uses it.

Kentucky has bigger problems with the Pillbillies. Having some stoned rednecks passed out in the woods is a harmless routine.

Yeah, damn pothead righties! Why don't they stop smoking dope and go out and get a job?

tromboner Where have you been. In the poorer parts in Kentucky growing pot have been big business for a long time. Just like in South America some of the local law enforcement look away to that fact. They would have to because Kentucky is one of the biggest states that produces marijuana.

Industrial Hemp and Commercial Medical Marijuana are two different things moron

But it'll take an expensive field test to tell the difference. wink wink.

He wouldn't have done this without someone paying him to. Hemp is not good for smoking. It will be good for Kentucky .

While I hope you are wrong I have to agree you are probably correct IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN, But whit that said as long as Obama doesn't come out "for it" it might just sneak through but like you say it probably won't this is just a way for the GOP to look like they are reasonable without really doing anything.

My two cents

This is a liberation flashback we havent seen in the GOP for way too long.

Well said... People have to realize that the main reason why marijuana is illegal is because that's how the "private prison for profit" (over private 250 prisons) system in this country wants it. They've been lobbing government for years to keep it illegal and to make laws more strict with longer sentences ... The longer citizens are in prison the more money they make (100.000 P.P. inmates ).... Why do you think that the US incarceration rate is the highest in the world ?.... The US represents 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prison population.