North Carolina hemp farmers and others navigating the rebirth of the state’s hemp farming and manufacturing industry face a nerve-wracking question, said a lawyer who represents them: Will harvested hemp become illegal after June 30?
That’s when the state law that authorized North Carolina’s hemp industry nearly seven years ago on a temporary, experimental basis expires.
After that, said hemp-industry lawyer Rod Kight of Asheville, it will still be legal for North Carolina farmers to grow hemp — a 2018 federal law provides hemp-farming licenses through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But it’s unclear whether the hemp they harvest will technically be illegal as of June 30 under prior North Carolina laws that prohibit the possession and manufacture of marijuana.
“So obviously, we would like a fix in the form of the North Carolina General Assembly to enter a short bill confirming that hemp remains legal explicitly in North Carolina,” Kight said.
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