‘Hemp has exploded’ in Kentucky. What that means for new jobs, investment

Although it may come as a surprise to some, Kentucky’s prominence in hemp is no coincidence, but instead the product of a hard-fought legal battle. The battle was fought by people like Jonathan Miller, who served as Kentucky’s State Treasurer for eight years from 1999 to 2007, and who now acts as general counsel for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable. With the Roundtable, Miller advocates for the legalization of well-regulated hemp around the nation. He is fresh off a legal victory — on Wednesday, July 17, Ohio became the 47th state to legalize hemp production. Miller said Kentucky was “the catalyst for the country’s federal legalization,” with politicians like former Commissioner of Agriculture and current U.S. Rep. James Comer advocating for hemp’s legalization as early as 2011. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has also pushed to revive the hemp industry, with language in the 2014 and 2018 Farm Bills that legalized hemp as an agricultural product and sponsoring the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 .