For almost 50 years, hemp has been lumped together with heroin, LSD, and Ecstasy, but new legislation could soon make the crop legal for farmers still struggling from the loss of tobacco.

Hemp is currently a Schedule I federally controlled substance, in the same legal category as LSD, heroin, and Ecstasy.

Like all forms of cannabis, it was criminalized in 1970, partially because Congress was worried that law enforcement couldn’t tell the difference between hemp and marijuana.

“There was tremendous biological understanding of the difference, but Congress was not making policy based on this—they were basing it on fear,” said John Hudak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of Marijuana: A Short History.

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Olivia Paschal ~ TheAtlantic.com ~