PROVIDENCE, R.I. — It’s now legal to grow Rhode Island hemp.
A new law that went into effect Jan. 1 allows people to get a state license to cultivate hemp for clothing, oil, food, fuel and other commercial products.
The scoop on hemp
Cash cropHow hemp is slowly becoming the new tobacco for Kentucky farmers
The triumphant return of hemp: West Virginia farmers begin to revitalize cash crop
‘CBDRx 2.0’: This Colorado hemp firm is overhauling its operations to achieve ‘extraordinary growth’
Versatile plants: American hemp farms take root under state pilot programs
Hemp in America: Will crop ever return to mainstream agriculture?
Lawmakers originally wrote the bill so that members of the Narragansett Indian Tribe could grow hemp, but later expanded the language to allow any licensed grower.
The legislation was signed into law in July by Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo. It also allows universities to grow hemp for educational and research purposes with the approval of state health officials.
It’s already legal to import hemp from abroad, but federal law only allows cultivation of hemp for research.
Industrial hemp is related to marijuana but has a lower concentration of the drug’s mind-altering ingredient — less than 0.3 percent of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.
