Officials hope to have farmers licensed to grow hemp by spring 2020.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill Tuesday legalizing hemp and CBD, and asking the state’s Department of Agriculture to develop a licensing system for farmers who want to grow hemp.
“We believe the safeguards are in place,” DeWine, a Republican, said at the bill signing, according to cleveland.com. “We believe it will provide more opportunity for Ohio consumers, more opportunities for Ohio farmers.”
After the Ohio Department of Agriculture creates a hemp program, farmers will be able to apply for a license to grow the plant. Like marijuana, hemp is a form of cannabis, but it has lower levels of THC, a potentially intoxicating compound, the department wrote on its website. CBD, short for cannabidiol, can be extracted from the plant and is used in food and dietary supplements.
Farmers will have to ensure that their hemp contains less than 0.3% THC. By comparison, the state’s Department of Agriculture says marijuana often contains 10% THC.
Under the new law, which also paves the way for universities in the state to grow hemp for research, officials hope to have farmers licensed by spring 2020.
Officials say they don’t know how successful the hemp industry will be and that farmers will have to learn how to grow the plant in the state’s climate.
“Nobody knows if the market will be oversaturated, or if there are market forces in place that we don’t know about yet,” Ty Higgins, a spokesman for the Ohio Farm Bureau, told The Columbus Dispatch.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, more than 40 states have passed legislation to establish industrial hemp cultivation and production programs.