It’s not marijuana legalization, but the massive new farm bill includes a pilot program that would allow universities and state agricultural departments to legally grow industrial hemp.

Pot advocates have long pushed for hemp legalization, touting it as a miracle plant that can be used for making rope, paper, clothing and a number of other products. But industrial hemp’s production has been illegal under federal controlled substances laws, since it is a cultivar of the same plant species that produces marijuana.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has been fighting for a change, and they said Tuesday that they’ve managed to get the relaxed rules written into the farm bill, which the House will vote on this week.

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Interestingly enough I attended a meeting just last night with a speaker who was extolling the virtues, agricultural and economic, of industrial hemp. Couple things to know, if you don't, industrial hemp is one form of the same plant that produces marijuana but does not contain the intoxicant THC. Moreover marijuana growers do not want industrial hemp grown anywhere near them as the pollen of industrial weakens the potency of marijuana plants.

Industrial hemp was outlawed along with marijuana and, according to the speaker, that was a big mistake. Countries like Canada and China grow it and we have to import from them in order to meet our needs, including a hemp herb sold at Costco.

Regardless of how you feel about marijuana industrial hemp should be legalized as an agricultural/industrial product.