Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning changing the industrial hemp definition from a constitutional definition to a statutory definition?
A referred amendment to article XVIII, section 16 of the Colorado Constitution to change the definition of industrial hemp from constitutional to statutory.
Under current state law, if the federal government authorizes the U.S. Department of Agriculture to regulate the cultivation and research and development of industrial hemp, the state’s program would automatically repeal. The Colorado Department of Agriculture is neutral on this issue.
Under the current federal law, all cannabis varieties, including industrial hemp, are classified as controlled substances regulated by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency in the U.S. Department of Justice. However, the U.S. Congress authorized the limited cultivation of industrial hemp for research purposes in 2014, and currently has legislation pending regarding industrial hemp.