Hemp is now grown in more than 20 countries for a variety of products, including cosmetics, beer, plastics and paper. Canada started allowing hemp production last year. The Drug Enforcement Administration and Justice Department were petitioned a year ago to go repeal the DEA's ban on hemp. But the DEA and the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy have said that permitting hemp farming would send the wrong signal to young people. They also worry that marijuana farmers could hide their crops with industrial hemp plants.
Police rely on aerial imagery to detect marijuana fields.
That's all the more reason to permit industrial hemp, according to pro-hemp forces. Hemp's tendency to cross-pollinate would make it risky to cultivate marijuana nearby, because that might hurt the potency of the marijuana crop, agronomists say. Police counter that cross-pollination could produce hemp with a kick. Marijuana normally contains 3 percent to 15 percent or more of THC, the psychoactive ingredient, while hemp has 1 percent or less. There's also disagreement about hemp's commercial potential.