FRANKFORT -- A task force created to study the feasibility of hemp as a cash crop has reached a disappointing conclusion: There are too many obstacles to conduct the research and too little potential profit for farmers.
The Hemp and Related Fiber Task Force, created by Gov. Brereton Jones in November, unofficially called it quits yesterday.
The panel never overcame an attorney general's opinion that raising hemp -- more commonly known as marijuana -- is illegal in Kentucky for any reason, including research.
But Gale Glenn, a Winchester farmer, made a last-ditch attempt. She urged the task force to ask the federal Drug Enforcement Administration for a special permit to allow one of the state's universities to grow a test crop.
"We're not asking them to grow marijuana. We're asking them to grow hemp," she said.
State Rep. Mark Farrow, the task force's only legislative member, said the public would not support an experiment that went against federal law.
"We're coming back to the chicken-and-the-egg thing as far as the legal problems," said Farrow, D-Stamping Ground. "There's been no great rush by anyone to touch the statutes."