A bill to legalize the production of industrial hemp in the state and exclude the plant from the definition of marijuana passed through a House select committee Wednesday night.
The production of hemp has been illegal in the U.S. since 1937, except for a brief period of legality during the World War II when the plant was used to aid war efforts.
The House Select Committee on Commerce included in its substitute bill an amendment sponsored by Rep. Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, first distributed at a committee hearing last week. The amendment would allow anyone with a valid industrial hemp license to grow the plant in the state.
The original version of the bill had stricter requirements, including owning property or living in the state for a minimum of five years in order to receive a license.
"We took that out because we don't want to put a timeline for people to invest in our state," bill sponsor Rep. Paul Curtman, R-Union, told the committee. "We want them to invest immediately."
The original measure also prohibited anyone convicted of a misdemeanor or felony drug offense from obtaining a license. The Missouri Department of Corrections estimated removing hemp as a controlled substance would cause one fewer person each year from being charged with a Class B felony, according the bill's fiscal note. Curtman said removal of this requirement benefits the bill.
"Those people would now be allowed to gainfully and legally be employed and be involved in the production of industrial hemp, which I believe should have been all along," he said.
Rep. Michele Kratky, D-St. Louis, introduced an amendment to Rowden's amendment during Wednesday's hearing that would include the original drug offense restriction in the bill.
"It just makes me nervous," she said, "And I think it would make my constituents nervous if I voted for a bill that would allow drug felons to be involved in hemp."
Rep. John McCaherty, R-High Ridge, didn't agree with Kratky.
"We wouldn't do this with corn or soybeans; it's an agricultural crop," McCaherty said. "And just because we don't grow this agricultural crop here today, doesn't mean that we should start it out with a bunch of restrictions that are really unnecessary."
Even with Rowden's amendment, Curtman told the committee the measure would still have safeguards to act as a "mouse trap" to catch anyone wanting to obtain a license to produce hemp in order to make any illegal marijuana operations seem legitimate. Obtaining a license requires people to subject themselves to audits.
Rep. Nick King, R-Liberty, said he agreed with Curtman about ensuring audits be random, where inspectors will "just show up from time to time."
Rep. Anne Zerr, R-St. Charles, the chairwoman of the select committee, said she agreed with McCaherty and she was comfortable with how the amendment stood.
The select committee substitute including Rowden's amendment was recommended for passage and moved to the House floor on a vote of 6-1, with Kratky was the only member opposed.