JACKSON COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) - Industrial hemp has been stolen right off of the plot of a Kentucky Department of Agriculture industrial hemp pilot program. The program began last spring and this is the first time hemp has been stolen.
Officials say someone stole several hemp plants growing on a pilot program plot in Jackson County late Thursday night.
"They were actually stolen out of the field, they were cut out of the field," says Hemp Pilot Program Coordinator Adam Watson. "Whether it was a case of mistaken identity or just lack of education of some people, but there's no illicit value to the plants that were stolen."
While hemp and marijuana come from the same plant, hemp lacks "THC," the psychoactive ingredient responsible for giving users a high.
"We feel it was someone who stumbled across it and thought it to be something illicit, something illegal, and didn't realize it was actually a research project," Watson says.
The stolen hemp only represents a small percentage of what's growing on the plot in Jackson County and officials say the next step is to harvest the remaining plants to see what potential hemp might have for commercial use in Kentucky.
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