As industrial hemp finds a foothold in Lake County, cannabis industry supporters and county officials are working on regulations to guide it.
Twenty months after legal commercial cannabis cultivation was legalized in California, Lake County has issued 44 permits for about 44 acres of crop.
And just four months after California began registering growers of industrial hemp since the plant was made legal at the federal level, 46 hemp farmers have registered in Lake County and are growing what Lake Agricultural Commissioner Steven Hajik estimates is more than 500 acres.
While the two plants’ genetics are nearly identical—both fall under the genus cannabis—each is regulated very differently from the other.
Cannabis cultivation requires growers to complete a lengthy and costly permitting process, but hemp farmers in many cases need no more than a plot of land, a $900 state registration document, and a $500 “site fee” payment to Hajik’s office to put plants in the ground.
Read more at record-bee.com