The Arkansas Times Blog reports
After the inaugural meeting of the Industrial Hemp Committee in late January, the regulatory system for hemp in Arkansas seemed near completion — draft regulations were sent along to Governor Hutchinson as part of the final steps for approval of the program’s bureaucracy.
But the committee’s progress has hit two hurdles: questions from the governor and a visit from the U.S Drug Enforcement Agency.
Last week, Terry Walker, Arkansas State Plant Board director, met with Hutchinson to go over the regulations, a spokeswoman for the Plant Board and the governor said.
On Monday, a representative from the DEA visited the Plant Board, a spokeswoman for the Plant Board confirmed. She said she could not discuss the specifics of that meeting. J.R. Davis, the spokesman for the governor’s office, said the governor did not request the DEA visit to the Plant Board. A DEA spokesperson did not return calls by press time.
Concerns about potential delays arose after the Arkansas Hemp Association, an advocacy group for hemp growers, reported on its Facebook page that Hutchinson had asked the Plant Board whether the drafted regulations would “interfere with the DEA regulations” and that the Plant Board had had a visit from the DEA.
