GOVERNOR VETOES INDUSTRIAL HEMP BILL

Though Gov. Jerry Brown called federal regulation of industrial hemp
plants "absurd," potential enforcement of those regulations
ultimately led to his veto of state Senate Bill 676, which would have
allowed hemp cultivation in four California counties, including Kern,
as part of an eight-year pilot program.

Supporters of the bill said the federal categorization of industrial
hemp plants as the same as marijuana plants is woefully outdated and
the fact that industrial hemp is imported for legal products means
Californians are missing out on a cash crop.

Opponents said the bill would make it more confusing for law
enforcement to bust marijuana grows and -- law enforcement issues
aside -- industrial hemp cultivation is still illegal under federal law.

In a Sunday veto message, the governor supported a "change in federal
law," adding that "products made from hemp -- clothes, food and bath
products -- are legally sold in California every day."

But until federal law changes, Brown said allowing the pilot program
proposed in the bill to move forward would have subjected California
farmers to federal prosecution.

State Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who wrote the bill, said the
program "was a real opportunity for the governor to create jobs and
help California's farmers in a very desperate time."

Furthermore, Leno said the federal preemption argument is weak.

"The governor supports the production of medical marijuana -- that's
no less illegal under federal law," he said. "Why wouldn't we want to
pass another law to help California farms grow another cannabis
sativa plant -- one that's not even a drug?"