Now that Kentucky has become the latest state to embrace industrial hemp President Obama should seize the moment to endorse the concept. It would be a bipartisan move to improve the country.

The federal government continued opposition to allowing American farmers to grow industrial hemp is an illogical and outdated relic from our insane drug war. The sole reason hemp is prohibited is that it technically is the same species as marijuana, but only in the way a gray wolf is technically the same species as a Shih Tzu. Hemp can’t get people high. It is purely a useful agricultural product that serves as a source of fiber, food and oil.

Today, Kentucky adopted a new industrial hemp law. The state legislature overwhelmingly approved the bill last month, but Gov. Steve Beshear (D) had been undecided on it. After some consideration Beshear decided to allow the bill to become law without his signature.

According to a new SurveyUSA poll for the Courier-Journal, 60 percent of voters would support legalizing marijuana for prescribed medical use. Only 31 percent of voters in the state oppose medical marijuana. While support is strongest among young voters, even a plurality of senior citizens would support the state adopting medical marijuana.

Marijuana legalization is going to be an actual voting option for many people in this election cycle, and despite attempts by most politicians to avoid the topic, it has already become harder to do so. We have Presidential candidates this year openly calling for legalization, and President Obama has had to transition from laughing off legalization questions in a Town Hall to seriously acknowledging Latin American leaders calling for a real discussion about “market alternatives.” Regardless of how voting turns out this year, it seems inevitable that marijuana is heading inexorably toward some kind of legalization.

It is, perhaps, perfect timing for a book like: Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know.

Today the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol is turning in nearly 160,000 signatures to the Colorado Secretary of State office to get their marijuana legalization initiative on the November ballot. That is nearly twice the 85,853 valid signatures required by state law to get an initiative put on the ballot.