Arizona medical cannabis farms have a plea for anyone looking to grow hemp when that becomes legal later this year: Keep your pollen off our plants.
State and federal lawmakers lifted restrictions on growing hemp last year, and some cannabis farmers fear a surge in hemp cultivation could send pollen blowing across the state and make their carefully-tended crops worthless.
A cannabis farm already convinced Snowflake town leaders to pass a rule requiring a buffer between the crops, and at least two others are looking for similar treatment from municipalities in other parts of Arizona. The two plants are related, but quite different.
Hemp has very little, 0.3% or less, of the psychoactive drug that makes cannabis popular and also illegal at the federal level. It's grown for industrial use and for legal "CBD" oil that people use for various ailments.
Cannabis grown for medicinal use in Arizona and other states is intentionally limited to female plants. If the female plants are exposed to pollen from male hemp or cannabis plants, they grow seeds and the flowers are less potent.
Because some hemp is grown with male plants, and because a hemp field would be much larger than a cannabis crop, cannabis growers are wary.
“In short, the potential for cross pollination of hemp plants and marijuana plants is inescapable if hemp is permitted to be grown in proximity to marijuana,” lawyer Timothy La Sota wrote to Pima County officials in January.
“And cross pollination effectively renders marijuana plants useless.”
Read more at azcentral.com
