![handle is hein.journals/kjequinan15 and id is 1 raw text is: The Federally Regulated Decline, Rebirth, and
Decline of the United States Hemp Industry
Henry Webb, Patrick R. Baker, Paula H Moore,
and Karen Scanlon*
ABSTRACT
This article considers the United States hemp industry,
including how it has fared in an uncertain federal regulatory
environment from the Civil War to the present, several
continuing barriers to its success, and two proposed federal
laws, the SAFE Act and the STATES Act, which are intended
to remove one of those barriers-an inability to obtain
traditional financing from United States financial institutions.
INTRODUCTION
Prior to the United States Civil War, hemp, which is
the common term for the Cannabis sativa Linnaeus plant and
its fiber when used for industrial, non-recreational purposes,
was considered to be a cornerstone crop of United States
agriculture.1 However, in the mid-1800's, federal law began to
regulate the visually identical psychoactive cousin of hemp,
marijuana, causing the hemp industry to decline.2 In 1970,
hemp was lumped in with marijuana as a Schedule 1 controlled
substance under the Controlled Substances Act.3
When the federal regulation of hemp finally began to
ease in the 2010s with the enactment of the Agricultural Act of
2014,4 the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018,5 and their
implementing regulations, the hemp industry began a dramatic
resurgence. That resurgence was short-lived, however, as by
2021, continuing regulatory uncertainty, and a number of other
*The authors are, respectively, Henry Webb a Professor of Business and
Legal Studies at Palm Beach Atlantic University, Patrick Baker an Associate Professor
of Law at the University of Tennessee Martin, Paula H. Moore a Professor of
Accounting and Law at the University of Tennessee Martin, and Karen Scanlon a
student at the University of Tennessee Martin (UTM Class of 2022).
' ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASS'N, IndustrialHemp Gains GroundIn Four States
(2022), https://organicconsumers.org/industrial-hemp-gains-ground-four/
[https://perma.cc/S8RZ-YS73].
2 Busted-America's War On Marijuana, PBS,
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dope/etc/cron.html
[https://perma.cc/2CUS-M8X7] (last viewed Aug. 15, 2023).
a 21 U.S.C. § 801 et. seq.
4 Agric. Act of 2014, Pub. L. No. 113-79.
1 Agric. Improvement Act of 2018, Pub. L. No. 115-334.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/kjequinan15&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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