JD Farms in New York State is farming cannabis, making it the state’s first legal crop in 80 years, but the Hemp Politics in the U.S. haven’t made it easy.
Make no mistake, this is not the type of cannabis that gets you high. The cannabis JD Farms is growing is industrial hemp, which has thousands of uses from food products to building materials, clothes, and plastic.
Jennifer Gilbert Jenkins, professor of agriculture at Morrisville State College, explains that although industrial hemp and marijuana stem from the same cannabis species, they are very different plants. The college is working together with JD Farms on a hemp pilot program for study and research purposes.
Included on the list of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Schedule I drugs is industrial hemp, even though it contains less than 0.3% THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana that gives the high. Due to hemp’s inclusion on this list, JD Farms had to deal with strict government regulations before being granted a permit from the DEA that allowed them to import seeds from Canada.
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