Hemp advocates tout hemp's economic potential

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Hemp advocates tout hemp's economic potential

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Some Kentucky companies are already planning to try to adapt their businesses if the growing of industrial hemp is legalized.

The crop has a multitude of uses and could make a comeback if some prominent Kentucky politicians get their way in 2013.

Lexington-based G.F. Vaughan Tobacco executives are planning a trip to Canada to see how the plant is processed in that country, where the crop is legal. Vaughan has spent 100 years processing tobacco, but the heyday of burley tobacco is long past.

The company says it wants to see whether its equipment can be adapted to process hemp, which was once a staple of Kentucky agriculture but has been outlawed because it is a cousin to marijuana.

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