CSU sets legal framework for hemp studies

Yellow Jacket research facility plans to have grow plot ready in late spring

By Jessica Gonzalez

Colorado State University’s experimental research station in Yellow Jacket has the green light to grow and study industrial hemp varieties this spring, according to CSU officials.

Speaking at the 2015 CSU Southwestern Colorado Research Center advisory committee meeting, Jeff Steiner, associate dean of research and deputy director of the agricultural experiment station, said the department has finally established a legal framework to begin the studies.

Industrial hemp research was authorized under the 2014 Farm Bill, but the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency still classifies hemp as a Schedule I narcotic, along with heroin, ecstasy, mescaline and other drugs. Because of the disconnect between the DEA and the USDA and getting viable seeds to researchers, academic studies were difficult.

“We’ve made major progress,” said Steiner. “We’ve done a lot of work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Office of General Counsel to create the legal framework to be able to do research with industrial hemp, and this spring after the frost is gone, we’re going to have research plots with industrial hemp – one in at the station north of Fort Collins and one here at Yellow Jacket.”

The Colorado study is just one part of a larger research effort with a European university, Steiner said. John McKay, professor and plant genetic researcher at CSU’s main campus in Fort Collins, is working with the European partner on obtaining seeds. The Yellow Jacket study plot will be the southern-most point in the study, he said, which could provide some interesting data.

“We’re really going to advance the science of what are these industrial hemp varieties and how different ranges of altitude and latitudes effect its growth,” said Steiner.

Abdel Berrada, director of the CSU Yellow Jacket research station, said the research station is eager and ready to get the study underway but cautions that until the research stations have seeds, nothing is set in stone.

“We don’t have the seeds yet. We’re hoping and doing everything to get what we need,” said Berrada. “We have the plans, and we want to do this, to provide information, people are interested in industrial hemp.”

Chuck McAfee, advisory committee member, stressed at the meeting the importance of the study and possibility of the niche product becoming on par with alfalfa as a top crop in the county.

“Because of cultural, perceptions and history, you mention hemp and people laugh, but I think, especially with research like this underway, that like alfalfa it will become part of our agricultural base,” said McAfee.

CSU’s legal framework could get some additional support, as two bills were introduced in Congress late last week that seek to amend the U.S. Controlled Substance Act to exclude industrial hemp from the DEA’s definition of marijuana. While marijuana and hemp are the same species of plant, industrial hemp only has 0.3 percent of THC compared with the 3 to 22 percent found in marijuana.