Hemp: North Carolina Governor Signs Bill to Study Industrial Use

North Carolina Governor Michael Easley has signed a bill that will create a commission to study the industrial uses of hemp. With that move coming as California awaits Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision on whether to sign a hemp bill there and North Dakota finalizes rules that would allow farmers to grow hemp under a 1999 law, it appears the hemp logjam is beginning to break -- at least in the states.

The Beneficial Uses of Industrial Hemp Act, passed as part of the as part of the Studies Act of 2006, will lay the groundwork for industrial hemp farming in the heavily agriculture Tarheel State.

According to the new law, a commission will be created to study ""the uses of industrial hemp oil as an alternative fuel and motor oil; the uses of omega-3 rich industrial hemp seed and industrial hemp oil in snack foods, body care products, and food supplements; the uses of industrial hemp fibers as raw materials for construction and paper products and for fabric; and the uses of industrial hemp in the manufacture of recyclable car parts."

The commission will be comprised of 15 members, including delegates of the Governor, the Commissioner of Agriculture, the Secretary of Commerce, House and Senate leaders, Agriculture Committee chairs, the President of the NC Farm Bureau, and the deans of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill, the Fuqua School of Business at Duke, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at NCSU and the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at NC A&T. The commission will report its findings and recommendations to the 2007 General Assembly and the Environmental Review Commission by December 1, 2006.