The new hemp industry in Colorado grew very slightly in 2015 since the federal and state laws regarding hemp are just now starting to clear up as more plants and seeds are becoming available. Growers in certain areas have been having great results; the Pueblo Economic Development Corp. has encouraged hemp cultivating and manufacturing as one of the three main components of the industry that it would like to see grow.
“We’re still continuing to do testing,” Duane Sinning, program manager at the Colorado Department of Agriculture, said. “There is a better outlook as this industry continues to test varieties and ways of handling the product.”
Colorado has registered 164 farmers this year and has provided 3,512 outdoor acres dedicated to hemp and 487,000 square feet indoors; fourteen of these are in Pueblo County alone. Not all of the ground has been planted yet since some growers have multiple plots in their name. Another complication is that hemp, cannabis, and marijuana are all regulated separately. For instance, hemp cannot contain over 0.3% THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that gets you high. In marijuana, the average amount of THC is about 18%. 91% of the hemp tested this year were under the 0.3% guideline while the others were higher by just a bit according to Sinning.
“We did not find anyone who is a true, hard-core marijuana grower,” stated Sinning. “They are not using (the state licensing process) to do anything other than trying to grow hemp.”
CBD oil (cannabidiol) is the biggest force in Colorado, but other uses are being found for hemp, such as fiber. Hemp plants are grown close together such as bamboo. The leaves stems and buds are then ripped off, dried, and crushed in order to make oil. The woody stalks are then still capable of being used for fiber.
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