SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) Dozens of people marched Saturday through Puerto Rico's capital amid growing support for a recent bill filed by a former police chief that aims to legalize marijuana for personal use, unleashing an unprecedented debate in this conservative U.S. territory. The crowd marched to the seaside Capitol building, where Sen. Miguel Pereira filed a bill this week stating it should be legal for those 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana. The former federal prosecutor and corrections secretary said possession cases are costing the government money, noting that 80 percent of inmates are serving time for nonviolent crimes. [continues 333 words]
New Industrial Hemp Law May Have No Impact in State Gov. Steve Beshear listened to both proponents and opponents of a bill that could pave the way toward a return to the time when industrial hemp was a major cash crop in Kentucky - and opted to take a middle ground, the path of the least political resistance. Ignoring pleas from different constituencies to sign Senate Bill 50 and to veto it, the governor chose the third option: He allowed the bill to become law without his signature. [continues 623 words]
FRANKFORT To listen to members of Kentucky's revived Hemp Commission Thursday, a compromise on a bill to regulate cultivation of industrial hemp is just around the corner. That's not all. It sounded as if hemp can solve many of Kentucky's problems, adding jobs, producing clean energy and making Kentucky a leader in something other than basketball, whiskey and horses. Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, is sponsor of Senate Bill 50 which would establish a "regulatory framework" within the Department of Agriculture for the licensing and cultivation of hemp if the federal government lifts its ban on the biological relative of marijuana. [continues 556 words]
FRANKFORT Watching the 2013 General Assembly is a bit like watching Kentucky's weather; if you don't like what you hear one day, just stick around for what they say the next. When lawmakers left town Friday, a bill sponsored by Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, to regulate hemp cultivation if the federal government allows it and pushed by Republican Agriculture Commissioner James Comer appeared dead in the Democratic-controlled House. Meanwhile, Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, told reporters he expected to share a House redistricting plan with the Democratic House caucus Monday. [continues 771 words]
FRANKFORT - There they were together, both promoting a new five-year strategic plan for Kentucky agriculture. But neither Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear nor Republican Commissioner of Agriculture Jamie Comer mentioned the word on so many minds in Frankfort these days: hemp. The plan, developed by the Kentucky Agriculture Council, lists seven core strategies, none of them specifically tied to hemp: next generation farming; new market identification; regional agricultural and rural community development; agricultural education; consumer education; government policies; and policy-maker education. [continues 493 words]
Regulation Of Industrial Hemp The pitch was the same but an all-star cast of salesmen went before the Senate Agriculture Committee Monday advocating passage of a bill to authorize regulation of industrial hemp in Kentucky. Senate Bill 50, sponsored by the committee's chairman, Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, won unanimous approval, that in itself a minor surprise as two members thought to have questions about the bill, Sen. Sara Beth Gregory, R-Monticello, and Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Hopkinsville voted for it. [continues 468 words]
What a nation of hypocrites we Americans have become. While our elected officials use tragedies like the massacre of schoolchildren to push for gun control, ignoring the Second Amendment, Jan. 22 marked the anniversary of an atrocity equal to the Holocaust and all the war dead in all our American wars plus all murders. I am referring to the premeditated slaughter of millions of children as a result of the Roe v. Wade ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. We will never know what wonderful people - maybe even a few presidents - we have lost in this slaughter, maybe even someone who could have cured cancer. I believe the so-called "justices" who made this decision possible should be tried for crimes against humanity, as well as those who continue to uphold it. [continues 112 words]
Frankfort seems suddenly enveloped in a haze. It's not a purple haze but it's close. Hemp is all the rage and those for it and those against it are raging. For a person of my age and generation, there's something funny here but I haven't quite cut through all the smoke to figure out exactly what it is. But the folks once known as the law-and-order bunch are fighting the Kentucky State Police and others over whether to legalize industrial hemp. [continues 537 words]
I remember when the late Lexington attorney Gatewood Galbraith made his first run for statewide office in 1983. He ran for agriculture commissioner on a platform based largely on legalizing the growing of industrial hemp in the commonwealth. Not surprisingly, he was dismissed as a kook and placed dead last in a four-candidate Democratic primary with only 12 percent of the vote. The fact that Kentucky's current agriculture, James Comer, is touting the exact same idea 30 years later as a potential savior of the state's farm economy - and is being taken quite seriously - proves Galbraith was a true visionary and a man ahead of his time. [continues 589 words]
Legalization Could Benefit Farmers, Produce Jobs LOUISVILLE (AP) Efforts to re-establish industrial hemp in the state where it once flourished won support Thursday from U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said its legalization would benefit farmers and produce jobs to convert the plants into products. Hemp supporters trumpeted the timely thumbs-up from Kentucky's most powerful Republican. It comes amid a lobbying campaign by hemp backers and detractors before state lawmakers resume their regular 2013 session next week in Frankfort. [continues 732 words]
Legalization Gains Momentum in State; Proponents Call It Cash Crop FRANKFORT - Proponents of legalizing industrial hemp in Kentucky say momentum for their cause is growing. But, some key law enforcement agencies still aren't enamored of the idea. Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer convened the resurrected Kentucky Hemp Commission for a meeting Monday by saying: "We are very aggressively seeking the input from law enforcement." But just before the meeting began, a law enforcement official on the commission issued a press release opposing legalizing the plant, which is biologically similar to marijuana, although it contains only trace amounts of the chemical THC, which produces the marijuana high. [continues 863 words]
Support for Industrial Hemp Has Moved into Mainstream Voter approval in Colorado and Washington of ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana has encouraged Kentuckians to increase their efforts to bring industrial hemp back to a state where it was once a major cash crop. If Colorado and Washington are blazing a path for the legalization of marijuana, they want Kentucky to be a national leader in the legalization of industrial hemp. There is no serious effort in Kentucky to legalize marijuana, mind you, but the same federal laws that ban the growing of marijuana also outlaw industrial hemp, a first cousin of pot in the plant kingdom. Despite the passage of the ballot initiatives in Washington and Colorado, it will take a change in those federal laws for marijuana to be legalized for recreational use in those two and any other states, just as it would to legalize industrial hemp in Kentucky. [continues 711 words]
State Legislators Are at Least Discussing Industrial Hemp Is industrial hemp - once a major cash crop in Kentucky - about to make a comeback in the state? Maybe although major obstacles would still have to be overcome before Kentucky farmers could again legally grow hemp, which produces strong fibers used in fabrics, ropes and other materials. The biggest of those obstacles is the federal ban on hemp production. While the Kentucky General Assembly could legalize hemp, it will do little good unless Congress lifts the federal restrictions on hemp, a cousin to marijuana. [continues 612 words]
Willie Park's grandson (Independent, May 5) has learned an important lesson: Life is not fair. Unfortunately, he has also learned that if you take responsibility for your actions and tell the truth (admirable traits), you will be penalized by the Lawrence County school board's policies. On the other hand, if you lie and deny any responsibility for your actions (dishonorable traits), you get a free pass by the school board. What on earth were they thinking, or were they not thinking of the consequences their actions send to their students? These students are in training to set the stage for the rest of their lives. Is this the message we want to send to our youths? [continues 161 words]
LOUISA - The Lawrence County School District is trying to crack down on drug use among its students, but one family says school officials are going too far and unfairly punishing those who should be given another chance. Willie Parks, of Louisa, said his grandson Dusty Branham, 18, has been put in alternative school and is not allowed to attend Lawrence County High School functions - including his senior prom - because a drug-sniffing dog with the Kentucky State Police reportedly found prescription-pill residue in his car during a search at the school a few weeks ago. The district regularly brings in dogs for unannounced searches in the hopes that it will quash drug use. [continues 522 words]
Even After An Accident, The Law Does Not Allow Testing Of Miners Blatant mine safety violations were not the only thing investigators found in Cody Mining No. 1 in Floyd County following an explosion that killed one miner and seriously injured two others. They also found a bag of marijuana and the dead miner's urine tested positive for the synthetic narcotic painkiller hydrocodone. So how serious was drug use in the mine? Frankly, investigators do not know. That's because current law does not allow drug testing of the survivors, even after the most serious accidents. [continues 110 words]
Cannonsburg Efforts to educate the community about the most prevalent manmade drug in the United States were successful Tuesday as about 150 people turned out for an extensive, in-depth training workshop concerning methamphetamine. The workshop was sponsored by ALERT Regional Prevention Center to educate the FIVCO region about the production, distribution and use of the highly addictive drug, commonly referred to as "meth." Program participants were exposed to the various types of meth, including information about packaging, amounts and prices. [continues 730 words]
ASHLAND - The FIVCO Area Drug Enforcement Task Force (FADE) is facing a financial crisis. The multi-county drug task force will have its federal grant funding cut by $80,000, or 34 percent, for the 2005-06 fiscal year. FADE expects to receive $156,000, compared with $236,000 for the current year. As a result, FADE will ask its member cities and counties to shoulder a larger share of the burden. The task force's board of directors, meeting in special session, voted Monday to request that the city councils and fiscal courts that are over the police and sheriff's departments that have officers in FADE pick up 75 percent of the cost for those officers' salaries and benefits, rather than the customary 50 percent. [continues 500 words]
ASHLAND - The Kentucky State Police recently conducted a series of classes in northeastern Kentucky aimed at raising awareness of just how dangerous it can be to run across a methamphetamine lab. The classes were in Greenup, Boyd and Carter counties and attended by more than 100 firefighters, solid waste coordinators and Department of Community-Based Services case workers, the KSP said. The instructor was Detective Jon Marshall, a certified meth lab responder who was a trooper at the Ashland KSP post for 15 years and now works out of the KSP's Drug Enforcement East Division based in Lexington. [continues 423 words]
Gov. Ernie Fletcher has unveiled a progressive, proactive plan that offers treatment instead of punishment for those battling drug addiction. This is the right approach that not only will help drug addicts but could reduce the state's burgeoning prison population by attacking the root cause of many crimes. Fletcher Monday unveiled a $9.5 million initiative to help pay for the construction and operation of 10 recovery centers across the state for drug addicts, especially those who are homeless. The governor said he expects two of the recovery centers, part of a program he calls Recovery Kentucky, to be located in eastern Kentucky, where police are combating "an epidemic" of prescription drug abuse. [continues 268 words]
