WeedLife News Network

Although hemp is illegal at a federal level, 13 states have jumped on board the hemp train, and for good reason.

In Kentucky, the University of Louisville's Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research has started growing industrial hemp in an effort to spur its fuels and manufacturing research.

Though commercial marijuana became legal in Alaska in February 2015, hemp is not yet legal.

Oregon medical marijuana dispensaries have sold an estimated $102 million in recreational cannabis since January, when the state imposed a 25 percent sales tax on pot.

Hemp and marijuana are not the same thing.

Wild marijuana grows in yards, gardens, and weedy industrial sites across the Twin Cities.

Hemp is a low impact, fast-growing and clean plant to produce, and extremely versatile.

A recent change to federal law allowed states to grow test plots of hemp only at university or government sites and Virginia is one 28 that are doing so.

Textile mills in regions such as Western North Carolina lie dormant while Americans import about $500 million worth of hemp annually.

The Delavan facility is working on hundreds of genetic strains, and plants are harvested about five times each year.

Murray State University hosted a Hemp Education and Field Day earlier this month, giving area residents insight on the hemp plots being grown at the university.

A report released in May showed that nationwide, retail sales for hemp products in 2015 reached $575 million, which was a more than 10 percent increase from the prior year.

Kentucky is experimenting with industrial hemp – as dozens of farmers grow test plots covering 45-hundred acres.

Environmental cleanup could be as simple as using natural resources, such as Indian mustard seed, sunflowers and hemp.

Hemp added to locally-produced meats shatters a barrier for a little-understood crop local farmers hope proves lucrative enough to secure a future for small, family-owned farms.

One acre of hemp can reportedly yield up to 5,300 pounds of straw, which can be turned into 1,300 pounds of wood fiber.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. - Marijuana is growing in Mesa County, but it won't get you high. "We were saving the ranch. It wasn't selling and we had to come up with a way to cover expenses," said Margaret Richardson, a co-owner at Salt Creek Hemp Company.

Penn State research could help farmers to be more successful if and when the law allows them to grow industrial hemp for profit.

As tobacco declines, some hope that hemp can be a “gateway crop” to financial sustainability for the state’s small farms.

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Governor Tom Wolf signs into a law a bill that allows the cultivation of industrial hemp in Pennsylvania.