Mississippi lawmakers are turning back an attempt to legalize growing industrial hemp in the state.

The House Drug Policy Committee, on a tie vote Monday, rejected an amendment that would have changed state law to allow farmers to grow hemp.

Changes to the state list of illegal drugs were proposed as House Bill 1547 .

The U.S. Congress last year approved allowing production of non-intoxicating hemp in heavily regulated pilot programs.

Committee Chairwoman Patricia Willis, a Diamondhead Republican, opposes the change. She says Mississippi’s law shouldn’t change before federal changes take effect later this year.

Republican Rep. Dana Criswell of Olive Branch, proposing the amendment, says Mississippi should move now or farmers will miss out.

Two recent studies indicate that CBD could be a valuable tool for fighting the opioid epidemic.

Federal health minister Jane Philpott has described the opioid epidemic as the “greatest public health crisis we face in Canada.” One new study suggests cannabis could be effective in treating opioid addiction through substitution therapy, while another recent study links CBD to the inhibition of opioid rewards in the brain.

In 2016, a public health emergency was declared in British Columbia due to the alarming rate of drug overdose deaths stemming from widespread overuse of prescription opioid painkillers, and an influx of illicit narcotics laced with deadly fentanyl and carfentanil.

Lawmakers in about two dozen states have proposed bills this year to ease their marijuana laws despite Attorney General Jeff Sessions' warning that he could crack down on pot, a major change from the Obama administration, which essentially turned a blind eye to the state legislation.

Bills have been introduced in 17 states this year to make recreational pot legal for adults, while five others are considering voter referendums on the issue. Sixteen states have introduced medical marijuana legislation, 10 are considering decriminalizing the drug and three are considering easing their penalties. An effort in Wyoming to decriminalize the drug failed this session.

When Proposition 64 passed in California, legalizing recreational marijuana use, many people imagined that UC Davis might get into the pot business. With the No. 1 agricultural school in the nation, as well as a top plant biology program, UCD seems poised to become a cannabis research leader.

Not so fast, says Chief Campus Counsel Jacob Appelsmith.

“Under federal law, (marijuana) is a Schedule 1 drug,” Appelsmith said, as are heroin and LSD. Even as states are legalizing cannabis for both medical and recreational uses, the feds are not moving forward at the same pace.