Can Hemp, Long Overshadowed by Marijuana, Rise as a Viable Industry? Winston Ross - Newsweek
go to original June 20, 2016

Why farmers are quitting tobacco and turning to hemp (PBS NewsHour)

Grown for millennia, hemp's uses are nearly endless - but the industry struggles to get attention compared to its sexier cousin, marijuana.

The public still has trouble distinguishing between hemp and marijuana, both painted with the same brush by “reefer madness” scare tactics from the early 1900s that failed to differentiate between one form of cannabis that gets people high and another form that doesn’t.

Hemp farming is bumping along slowly. In Oregon, 11 brand-new licensees planted five viable crops (others were spoiled thanks to infiltration from nearby pot farms and other issues) and this year the number of farmers has surged to 43.

But the industry could be much bigger, Courtney Moran, a Portland attorney who represents industrial hemp growers, says. She filed a petition with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency just last week to declassify hemp as a federally banned “schedule 1” substance, thanks to the minuscule presence of THC in hemp.

There’s also tension between hemp and marijuana farmers, says Josh Taylor, who organized a hemp convention. Marijuana farmers worried that hemp plants will produce seeds that infiltrate their own crops have burned down the stalks, he said, which has led to “buffer zones” in states like Colorado.

Read the rest at Newsweek

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