Industrial hemp will soon become legal in Pennsylvania.
House Bill 967 passed the state House and Senate this week and allows for pilot programs to begin industrial hemp research under the oversight of the Department of Agriculture.
A spokesman for Gov. Tom Wolf said Tuesday he would sign the bill into law.
Hemp can be used to make a variety of products, including clothing, medicine and food, according to the Pennsylvania Hemp Industrial Council.
As the Central Penn Business Journal noted, hemp comes from the cannabis plant, and production of it stopped in 1937 when the Marijuana Tax Act outlawed it because it came from the same plant as marijuana. [Read more at Philly Voice]