The Osoyoos economic development office will also make application under Forest Renewal B.C. for grants to grow the crop, Cooper said, adding hemp can be used as an alternative to wood for paper pulp and timber products. Hemp appears to be economically and commercially viable. Cooper said the Granby Hemp Coalition recently received the first commercial hemp license in the province. Cooper also dismissed the suggestion that hemp cultivation could be seen as growing marijuana. There s a huge difference.
Commercial hemp is the male plant, marijuana is the unpollenated female plant.
The worst possible thing you could do is have a commercial hemp operation in an illegal grow area. For 10 or 20 kilometres around you have pollen in the air. There is no way an illegal grow operation will be able to filter the pollen out of the air. But for now in Oliver, Schafer said he is simply researching the viability of the crop and looking for proposals in how effluent might be used to grow the crop. We really have to look at more creative ways of utilizing the effluent than just disposing of it on bare ground.