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Senator wants solution after Wisconsin’s new hemp farmers dealt a legal setback

The Wisconsin State Senator behind the state’s new industrial hemp law is not pleased with last week’s enforcement memo from the Attorney General’s office.   Patrick Testin says, “The opinion of the Department of Justice is violating the legislative intent of the hemp bill.”

Testin says the opinion of the Attorney General Brad Schimel released a few days before the hemp licensing deadline says all cannabidiol and CBD products are illegal in Wisconsin, even if those products are made from the industrial hemp pilot program.  Testin tells Brownfield he wants to know why the Department of Justice waited until now to release this opinion after more than a year of hearings and legislative work.  “I reached out to the Attorney General personally, requesting a one-on-one meeting with him so hopefully we can sit down and hopefully hash this out and provide some solutions that we think will bring some clarity to this issue and allow our farmers and processors to manufacture CBD oil from industrial hemp plants here in the State of Wisconsin.”

Wisconsin Farm Bureau’s Rob Richard is also looking for a solution but says a federal bill under consideration would solve his problem by removing hemp from the controlled substances act.  “The DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) has taken an interpretation of federal law that is in contradiction of Congressional intent under the 2014 Farm Bill.  This is why we need Mitch McConnell’s Hemp Farming Act to pass.”

Testin says more than 300 farmers have applied for hemp licenses, and many have already been granted.  He says many farmers were planning to produce seeds for food, but a large number of farmers were hoping to grow for CBD oil production.

Richard says CBD oil was not listed as a Schedule 1 controlled substance.  The 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco decided in February to agree with the Drug Enforcement Administration, which says it is a Schedule 1 controlled substance.