A lawsuit filed by North Dakota farmers over a petition to legally grow hemp should be thrown out, the U.S. Justice Department says.

The Associated Press reported Aug. 23 that department lawyers moved to dismiss the case in a Fargo federal court, saying that the plaintiffs don't have a case because the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) hasn't finished reviewing their petition. The lawsuit asks the court to rule that hemp can legally be grown in North Dakota under a state licensing system.

"The DEA continues to confuse industrial hemp and marijuana, and pretends that they can't allow states to regulate hemp farming," said Tim Purdon, the lawyer for farmers Wayne Hauge and Dave Monson, who also is a state legislator. "Both assertions are untrue and misleading."

North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson delivered the farmers' petition for federal approval to the DEA in March and asked for a decision by April 1 so they could plant a crop, but DEA has not yet ruled on the application. The agency also rejected Johnson's request to waive the federal registration requirement for growing hemp.

Industrial hemp is a close cousin of marijuana but lacks the latter's psychotropic properties.