Hemp cultivation would help stimulate Jamaica’s economy, a high ranking official recently told Parliament in an effort to sway farmers to begin growing the crop.
“If … the THC content of hemp is so low that it could not be used as a … drug, then there is no law forbidding it from being grown,” national security and justice minister K.D. Knight said, according to CNN. “Go ahead and produce acres of hemp. The economy needs this.”
Knight said he did not fear that marijuana growers would try to clandestinely grow potent strains of the crop in hemp fields. The crop’s proponents argue that cross pollination would lower the potency and value of marijuana grown in or near hemp farms.
Minister of Commerce and Technology Phillip Paulwell also recently endorsed a proposal to investigate the economic potential of hemp, Reuters News Service reported.
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre of The NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751 or NORML board member Don Wirtshafter of The Ohio Hempery @ (740) 662-4367.