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Industrial hemp bill gaining support in Wisconsin

Wisconsin might soon join Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota in allowing commercial production of industrial hemp.  State Senator Patrick Testin from Stevens Point tells Brownfield the proposal is getting bipartisan interest. If passed, the state would license and regulate hemp growers.  “You’d also have to provide the GPS coordinates where the fields are going to be located, and on top of that, anyone who has been convicted of drug trafficking or drug-related charges won’t be able to get a license to grow industrial hemp here in the state.”

Illinois and Michigan have a pilot hemp program involving their Departments of Agriculture and state colleges.  Minnesota already allows the Agriculture Commissioner to license commercial growers.

Both hemp and marijuana are in the cannabis plant family.  Testin says THC levels in marijuana – which make people high –  exceed 8% but industrial hemp plants average 3-tenths of a percent, and in this bill, could not exceed one percent.

He says hemp has many benefits.  “Whether it’s to make plastics stronger, the fiber is actually going to be used in fire-retardant materials, so it’s great for firefighters, and then also some of the health benefits whether it’s CBD oil, and the seeds themselves actually have more omega threes than some fish oils.”

Testin says farmers in his district and agriculture groups including Wisconsin Farmers Union and Wisconsin Farm Bureau support industrial hemp production.

The bill is co-authored by Representative Jesse Kremer from Kewaskum.  They will seek additional co-sponsors until March 10^th and then introduce the bill on the Assembly and Senate floors.