Since hemp became legal to grow in 2018, Connecticut regulators have issued 119 licenses to do so, according to state records. But fewer than half that number of licenses are currently active, and Becky Goetsch said she believes there are far fewer growers, perhaps 10 across the entire state, who have hemp plants in the ground.
Goetsch herself had a hemp growers license, and later helped create and run the Connecticut Hemp Industry Association. But she has since let her license lapse, blaming what she said is an ever-growing list of regulations that were intended to prevent the sale of illicit intoxicating products.
"I understand the challenge of trying to regulate the hemp-derived THC products. When they did that they made it very difficult for us," Goetsch said. "The challenge is there is nothing in place to make sure the Connecticut dispensaries are selling Connecticut hemp products."
Only eight years old, Connecticut's hemp industry has become victim, farmers and legislators say, to an ever-growing list of regulations that have effectively killed the budding industry. Once promising, hemp in Connecticut has, insiders say, been swept aside in the rush toward legal cannabis, and has taken fatal, collateral damage in the fight against illegal cannabis products.
Read more at New Haven Register
