Pot Banking Bill Offers Hemp Relief and Senate GOP Sweetener (2)

The booming hemp industry in Kentucky could be the linchpin to getting cannabis banking legislation through the Republican-controlled Senate.

Hemp production is taking off in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) home state and elsewhere, particularly among farmers looking to replace tobacco crops. About 1,000 Kentucky farmers are growing hemp, a five-fold increase from 2018, and more than 200 hemp businesses are now registered in the state, up from 70 a year ago, according to Ryan Quarles, Kentucky’s Commissioner of Agriculture.

But that growth is being hampered by hemp’s association with cannabis.

Business loans and payments services have been hard ...