As South Carolina gets on board with hemp farming, we take a look back at the Hemp History of the U.S.A. It all started in 1939 with the federal Marijuana Tax Act which implemented very stringent rules about growing and selling any species of cannabis.
Earlier this month, the South Carolina General Assembly passed a bill for the legalisation of industrial hemp cultivation. It was hardly recognised because of the hustle and bustle that the Assembly was experiencing at the end of its session.
Not to be mistaken for marijuana, hemp is very different from its close cousin. Hemp has less than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabidiol (THC), the psychoactive compound that gives the high, compared to marijuana’s 40 percent.
Aside from it’s extremely low THC content, hemp has thousands of uses, from food and clothing to airplane parts and vehicle compounds. The South Carolina Department of Agriculture and the State Law Enforcement Division will launch the hemp pilot program as early as this summer, allotting 20 growing licenses for up to 20 acre plots.
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