Indopedia All Things Marijuana
Lead photo via Wikimedia Commons
It won’t get you high, you probably shouldn’t smoke it, and it’s not entirely legal, but industrial hemp is having quite the year. As states around the country continue to sort out a path towards legalizing cannabis for recreational and medical use, production of reefer’s non-intoxicating cousin has exploded.
According to a report from the advocacy group Vote Hemp, the size of America’s annual hemp crop more than doubled in 2017, from 9,770 acres of the industrial crop in 2016 to 23,346 acres produced this year.
“We’ve seen hemp cultivation significantly expand in the U.S. in 2017, with over double the number of acres planted in hemp compared to last year and the addition of 4 more states with hemp pilot programs,” said Eric Steenstra, President of Vote Hemp, in a press release. “The majority of states have implemented hemp farming laws, in clear support of this crop and its role in diversifying and making more sustainable our agricultural economy. It’s imperative that we pass the Industrial Hemp Farming Act in Congress, so that we can grant farmers full federally legal rights to commercially cultivate hemp to…
