Early cultivation In the 18th century,
John Filson wrote in
Kentucke and the Adventures of Col. Daniel Boone (an appendix of his 1784 work
The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke) of the quality of Kentucky's land and climate for hemp production. The first hemp crop in Kentucky was raised near
Danville in 1775. Kentucky was the greatest producer of U.S. hemp in the 19th and 20th centuries, with thousands of acres of hemp in production. Senator
Henry Clay was a "hemp pioneer" and the "strongest advocate" of Kentucky hemp. He grew it on his Kentucky estate
Ashland and brought new seeds to the state from Asia. Clay's oratory on the Senate floor in 1810 in favor of requiring the Navy to use domestic hemp exclusively for ship's rigging was widely reprinted in newspapers and is credited for beginning the elaboration of the
American System. According to a 1902 periodical, Kentucky was responsible for three quarters of U.S. hemp fiber production. Shelby County was one of the main producing counties of hemp. Supposedly Hempridge Road received its name from Senator Henry Clay. It is said that local residents presented Clay with a walking stick fashioned from a hemp stalk. Clay was so delighted that he reportedly declared any community producing such a hempstalk should be “known as Hempridge.” Production reached a peak in 1917 at 18,000 acres, mostly grown in the
Bluegrass region, then waned due to market forces after World War I as other sources of fiber were introduced. A Federal program to reintroduce hemp for wartime needs in Kentucky and other states during World War II reached 52,000 acres in Kentucky in 1943.
Decline and criminalization Production of hemp had seen a decline after World War I due to market forces including the rise of tobacco as the cash crop of choice in Kentucky and foreign sources of hemp fiber and finished products. The availability of cheap
synthetic fiber after World War II even further discouraged farmers from growing it. The
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) refused to issue permits for legal hemp cultivation and held that, since industrial hemp is from the same species plant as prohibited cannabis (despite its being of lower THC yield), both were prohibited under the Controlled Substances Act.
Partial re-legalization By the late 20th century, consumer demand for hemp products was resurgent but American farmers were left as bystanders. Imported agricultural products were allowed from other countries, including Canada, but growing hemp legally was not possible in the United States. In 1994, Kentucky was one of the first states to consider reintroducing hemp cultivation, with a commission convened by governor
Brereton Jones to investigate legal pathways to do so. In 2013, Kentucky passed a state law, Senate Bill 50, allowing production for agricultural research purposes. Although the
Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013, which would have allowed hemp production, failed, and 6,700 acres in 2018. The was conducted under the auspices of the
Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Research at the
University of Kentucky's Spindletop Research Farm sought to improved
agronomy and includes research on optimizing
cannabinoid yield. The researchers are also engineering new mechanical harvesters that can reach the high flowers of tall-growing hemp. and research permits were issued for over that year.{{cite news|title=Record Number of Kentucky Hemp Crops Expected in 2017 ==Legal status==