The Columbian / Associated Press

Oregon hemp farmers looking for legislation changes

A bag of shredded hemp on the way to being turned into pulp and used for paper and other products sits on a table May 19 at Pure Vision Technology, a biomass factory in Ft. Lupton, Colo. The newly legal hemp industry is entering its second growing season with some big questions for producers experimenting with marijuana's non-intoxicating cousin.

SALEM, Ore. — A new group of Oregon hemp advocates will ask lawmakers to help clear roadblocks holding back the state’s hemp farming industry.

The Bend Bulletin reports that the Oregon Industrial Hemp Farmers Association plans to lobby state legislators to fix issues that farmers faced during the first hemp growing season this year.

Courtney Moran, a Portland attorney organizing the group, says hemp farmers are looking for changes to legislation regarding greenhouses and propagation freedom. According to Moran, hemp is the only crop in Oregon that cannot be grown in a greenhouse, cut or cloned.

The state Department of Justice said in September that the 2009 law legalizing hemp doesn’t include the word “greenhouse,” so hemp farmers aren’t allowed to grow inside.