Louisiana Farmers Will Soon Be Able to Legally Grow Hemp
With the rules on marijuana easing in the Bayou State, more and more patients are able to get life-changing medicines that were patently illegal just a few short years ago. Now another member of the pot family is getting its time in the legal sunshine. This coming spring, Louisiana farmers will be able to plant, tend to, and harvest hemp.
According to the Ark-La-Tex Homepage, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture just submitted its first draft of rules outlining how farmers in the Sportsman's Paradise could grow and sell hemp for industrial uses. Each grower must licensed and must adhere to very strict USDA requirements, such as having their crop tested to ensure that the plants have no more than .3% THC (the psychoactive ingredient in Marijuana).
If the roll-out goes as planned, Dept. of Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain estimates that Louisiana could have between fifty and one hundred thousand acres of industrial hemp growing next year.