3.3.16

Suggested lead:   .  Dan Frizzell has that story.

Wrap (:xx total):  To hear it's advocates talk, industrial hemp, the non-intoxicating cousing of marijuana, might be the most versatile plant in existence.  It's a crop that can be used for cloth, rope, food, medicine, jewelery, paper, even biodeisel fuel.  Unfortunately, industrial hemp was the baby that was thrown out with the bathwater when marijuana was outlawed back in the thirties.  Times change, though, and Washington lawmakers want to bring hemp back to the land.  A bill that passed out of the state House unanimously Tuesday would do just that.  State Representative Christopher Hurst argued for passage on the House floor.

JINKINS:  "We've been working on this for years, trying to figure out a way to have industrial hemp grown once again in Washington.  At one point in time it was our second largest crop.  We have other states really pressing forward quickly to get ahead of Washington state, and that's to the detriment of our state, and our farmers, and our agriculture industry.  This is a very significant piece of legislation; we will have crops in the ground this spring." [:23]. 

Hurst, a retired police detective and Democratic chair of the House Commerce and Gaming Committee, worked with the bill's sponsor, Senator Bob Hasegawa, to secure passage, and it's now in line to be signed into law by Governor Jay Inslee.  In Olympia, I’m Dan Frizzell.