House Tells DEA To Leave State Hemp Programs Alone
House members early Friday blocked the Drug Enforcement Administration from using funds to interfere in state-legal industrial hemp research, a rebuke to the agency less than a month after it seized hemp seeds intended for Kentucky's pilot program.
Two hemp-related amendments to a DEA funding bill introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) prohibit the Department of Justice, including the DEA, from blocking states' importation of hemp seeds, and from preventing states from implementing laws authorizing industrial hemp activities made legal under this year's federal farm bill.
Massie’s amendment passed 246-162, and Bonamici’s was approved 237-170. The Senate will likely consider its own appropriations bill for the DEA and Justice Department, and the House amendments would have to survive a joint conference before going into effect.
"The DEA has more important things to do than interfere with legal activities at the state level," Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said. "We need to remove the cloud of uncertainty,"
Massie said Kentucky was forced into a "waste of time and money and the court system's limited resources" during a legal battle with the DEA over its hemp seeds this month. “The DEA is not above Congress, it’s not above the law,” Massie added. “This amendment simply asks the DEA to follow existing laws.”
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