USDA will let hemp farmers destroy 'hot' crops themselves, but stands by 15-day rule; DEA allows more labs to do tests

Hemp farmers whose crop is found too much of the psychoactive ingredient that makes it marijuana will be allowed to destroy the fields themselves instead of hiring contractors, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday. USDA also plans to "expand the number of laboratories that can test industrial hemp for THC levels," Chuck Abbott reports for Successful Farming.

"Growers and state officials have complained that there will not be enough laboratories to test hemp samples when harvest time arrives and that farmers could be saddled with the high cost of destroying fields of hemp that exceed the THC limit," making them "hot," Abbott writes. "The USDA interim rule issued last fall also said that when fields exceed the THC limit, the crop would be disposed of by law enforcement or a DEA-approved 'reverse distributor,' who would treat hemp with the same protocols as contraband drugs, such as incineration."

Agriculture Undersecretary Greg Ibach said that after discussions with the Drug Enforcement Administration, testing labs won't have to complete a DEA certification process this year, so they test for THC if states consider them reliable.

"Ibach did not mention another complaint of growers: the requirement to harvest a field within 15 days of collecting samples for THC tests," Abbott reports. "Producers say 15 days is not enough time to get a report from a test lab and then harvest the field." The rule is part of rules that USDA issued in October that are more rigorous than those used in many states' pilot hemp programs.