Hemp is booming in Kentucky and elsewhere but still struggling on social media.

On Dec. 20, President Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill to legalize hemp, but Facebook apparently didn’t get the memo.

Overnight on Dec. 24 Facebook took down the Kentucky Hemp Works page for promoting the sale of “prescription pharmaceuticals.”

Owner Katie Moyer said that she immediately appealed the action but Facebook sent her a response saying that it had reviewed the page and “confirmed that it still violates the Facebook Page Polices.”

Lexington attorney Jonathan Miller, who is general counsel for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, said this has happened over the last six years to several hemp-related businesses on Facebook. And there probably isn’t anything that can be done.

“Where we have seen a consistent issue is on the advertising side, where companies have tried to sell products and been rejected. I’m told marijuana companies have had fewer problems,” Miller said. “We’ve been hoping the passage of the Farm Bill would change that, because now it takes away the underlying argument that it violates the Controlled Substances Act.”

Often, Miller said, Instagram and Twitter will follow Facebook’s lead and cut off companies, too, often with little explanation other than an implication that “they are doing something illegal.”

No company is supposed to tout specific medical or veterinary benefits from hemp products, which are supplements and not regulated by the FDA.

Moyer, who processes hemp on a farm in Christian County and sells cannabidiol drops, hemp root salve, hemp protein powder, hemp seed oil and more, said she’s always very careful not to make medical claims....