Shasta County may ban growing hemp

By Damon Arthur
Source:
redding.com

After banning the sale and cultivation of recreational marijuana in Shasta County last year, county officials now want to close a loophole in state law they say could allow firms and institutions to grow cannabis under the guise of conducting industrial hemp research.

To close that gap in the law, the county Board of Supervisors plans to hold a public hearing Tuesday on a proposed urgency interim ordinance that would prohibit cultivating industrial hemp in areas of the county outside city limits.

A report sent to the board says the 2016 law that legalized the sale and use of recreational marijuana also established an industrial hemp advisory board to oversee the regulation of industrial hemp.

Even though the board has not been set up, “established agricultural research institutions” may still conduct research on industrial hemp, the report says.

Industrial hemp is required to have a much lower level of the psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol  — also known as THC — than recreational marijuana, but the plants look almost identical, according to the board report.

The THC level in industrial hemp is limited to .3 percent, the report says.

The concern is firms could claim to be growing industrial hemp while actually cultivating marijuana with an illegally high level of THC, the report says.

“This exemption allows cultivators to claim an association to be an EARI (established agricultural research institution) while the county has no guidelines on whether the grower or the institution is legitimate. The ability and likelihood that cultivators could exploit this exemption to grow industrial hemp is great,” the report says.

“The unregulated cultivation of industrial hemp by EARI’s may pose the same threats to the public’s health, safety and welfare as the cultivation of cannabis and may be in violation of Shasta County’s current cannabis regulations,” the report says.

The proposed ordinance would preclude cultivators from growing cannabis under the guise of growing industrial hemp, the report says.

The ordinance would be effective for 45 days but could be extended another 22 months and 15 days, the report says.

While growing and selling recreational marijuana is against the law in the county, it is legal in Shasta Lake and is on track to become legal this spring in Redding.

The board meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the county administration building, 1450 Court Street in Redding.