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Anxiety Over Frivolous THC Limits

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For farmers that are busy growing hemp around the United States, it can be one of the most enjoyable and rewarding experiences. That is until harvest time rolls around, then they start to worry about whether or not their products are going to pass the THC test.

The government imposes arbitrary restrictions on how much THC can be found in the plant and they need to be tested and approved before they can hit the market.

This means that they need to be growing that variety of cannabis with no more than 0.3 to 0.5 THC otherwise they will be forced to destroy all of it.

If they end up having a 'hot' crop, then it could mean having to destroy everything. That all of their months of effort were for nothing. And thousands of dollars worth of valuable goods, that could still be used on the market despite that high level of THC, are now garbage that the government doesn't want to exist and they demand be destroyed.

Both lawmakers and farmers have increasingly voiced their concern for these restrictions and asked for a consideration of increasing those THC limits. But the USDA isn't going to budge on that yet.

The average cannabis product in the market is going to contain between 15 to 20 percent THC.

Even if those hemp farmers harvested their crops and still had around 1 or 2 percent, they are far below the average. It is only because of arbitrary dictates being made by people who aren't involved in the exchange in the market with this product who are making the rules for others on what they can sell or buy.

It doesn't make any sense to destroy perfectly good crops because of subjectively concerning THC levels.

For now, the restrictions on THC are written into the previously passed Farm Bill and so the USDA is using that as the justification to keep things the way that they are. It would take congressional action to change that and increase the limits. Because of all of those unreasonable restrictions that pepper the cannabis market today and due to the extensive cannabis criminalization that still exists, lawmakers have made it more difficult than ever for voluntary innovation to flourish, and for businesses to try and meet the needs of those within the industry.

Staying Under .3%

Hemp farmers have repeatedly admitted that trying to grow and stay under that arbitrary restriction is one of the most unpleasant aspects of the job. This is because there can be multiple factors that are outside their control which will influence the amount of THC that they end up with, despite their efforts to avoid it.

“It would be a shame to have to harvest a really strong CBD plant early and it doesn't reach its potential just because you're worried about the THC,” - M. Flynn, Granville hemp farmer.

But they've done it again and again, being forced to burn millions of dollars worth of goods over the years because the plant grew with too much THC. Doing research to better understand growing these crops, and the best ways to go about it etc, are also heavily restricted. Just getting the samples, seeds etc, in order to do those studies is something that requires many hurdles for researchers to go through. All because the state has deemed this plant too controversial to try not controlling every single aspect of it and all market activities related to it.

Pics: pixabay