(Billings Gazette) The state this month issued its first license for an industrial hemp-growing operation to a woman who said she wants to develop a domestic market for the plant despite federal law barring its cultivation.
Laura Murphy, of Bozeman, was the first to apply for the two-year license since the state Legislature approved its commercial cultivation in 2001.
Federal law prohibits such activity, but the license issued by the Montana Agriculture Department on Oct. 14 could challenge whether the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is willing to override the state.
Montana applied to the DEA in 2002 for recognition of the state’s hemp growing law. The request was denied, but Montana Agriculture Department attorney Cort Jensen said it could be reconsidered now that a license has gone out.
“Obviously hemp is a little different than ordinary marijuana, but they have declined in the past,” he said. In the meantime, he added: “We will administer the state law.”
In her license, Murphy was warned by Jensen that “growing hemp is still illegal.”
“You still need to get permission from the Drug Enforcement Agency in order to grow it without facing the possibility of federal charges or property confiscation,” he wrote.
You know what I’d do if I were Laura Murphy? Plant just one industrial hemp plant. Local and state cops aren’t going to harass her since she now has a legal Montana license to grow it, and it would be fun to see if the DEA really wants to make a spectacle out of uprooting one non-psychoactive hemp plant, prosecuting her for growing it, and seizing her property over it. Or maybe just grow 99 hemp plants so she falls short of the five-year mandatory minimum threshold of 100 plants. In the context of the recent Obama DOJ memo telling federal prosecutors it is a waste of resources to go after medical marijuana users in states that have declared it legal, wouldn’t it also be a waste of resources to go after hemp producers in states that have declared it legal?
Hi all,
Thanks for the support.
I will be growing thousands of hemp plants as there is no state limit.
We dare the D.E.A. to set foot on our land in Montana.
We will protect our land at all cost, with the backing of our constitution in Montana.
All should read it.
We have secured another 400 acres in the past few days.
We, myself and partner Mike are on the way to so-cal to meet with people in the hemp industry. Look for an article in Hempire magazine and West Coast Leaf newspaper.
Thanks for all the support.
This is our government a government by the people and for the people!!!
We want all to pray for jacks speedy recovery without jacks tireless effort where would we be today? We love you jack!
Best wishes to all Laura Murphy & Michael Smith
i think all the states with hemp laws should go ahead and flood the market with licences to grow…. the DEA could never contain it and it would be plastered all over the news… the feds will never legalize… its up to the states, and more importantly, the people to tell the government its going to be how we want it, not how they want it….. same idea with marijuana… lets override the federal government with shear numbers!!!
Wouldn’t it also be a waste of resources to go after hemp producers in states that have declared it legal?
You got it , thats the key right there, if we start seeing these states with Hemp laws letting people grow it, Obama will again have to send out is little helpers to say they wont waste their time!
Dam, things are moving faster and faster, I hate to say it but is that some light at the end of the tunnel?