Arkansas Administrative Code › Agency 209 - Arkansas Agriculture Department › Division 02 - State Plant Board › Rule 209.02.19-006 - Arkansas Industrial Hemp Research Program Rules

Current through Register Vol. 49, No. 6, June, 2024
SECTION 1.
DEFINITIONS.
When
			 used in these rules (A) .
(1)
			 "
Act"
means Arkansas Industrial Hemp Act (A.C.A. 2-15-401 et
			 seq)
(2) "
Applicant
"
			 means a person, or a person who is authorized to sign for a business entity,
			 who submits an application.
(3)
			 "
Approved cultivar
" means any variety of industrial hemp
			 designated by the Arkansas State Plant Board in a published list and may be
			 amended from time to time.
(4)
Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA)
"AOSCA
			 Certified seed"
,
"AOSCA Registered seed",
and
"AOSCA Foundation seed"
mean seed that has been
			 produced and labeled in accordance with the procedures and in compliance with
			 the rules of an AOSCA seed certifying agency or by the Organization for
			 Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Seed Schemes. AOSCA Certified Seed
			 programs provide standards and procedures approved by the United States
			 Secretary of Agriculture to maintain and make available to the public high
			 quality seed and propagating materials of superior crop plant varieties grown
			 & distributed to insure genetic identity and purity.
(5) "
Board
" means the Arkansas
			 State Plant Board.
(6)
			 "
Cannabis
" means all parts of the cannabis plant, whether growing
			 or not, including its seeds, resin, compounds, salts, derivatives, and
			 extracts. Cannabis does not include publicly marketable hemp products, as
			 defined in this rule.
(7)
			 "
CBD
" means cannabidiol.
(8) "
DEA
" means the United
			 States Drug Enforcement Administration.
(9) "
Delta-9-THC
" means
			 delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol concentration (the primary intoxicating component
			 of cannabis).
(10)
			 "
Department
" means the Arkansas Department of
			 Agriculture.
(11)
			 "
GPS
" means Global Positioning System.
(12) "
Grower Licensing
			 Agreement
" means a document executed by a person and the department
			 authorizing the person to grow, handle and store hemp at one or more specified
			 locations in Arkansas under the terms set forth in the document, Arkansas
			 Industrial Hemp Act 2-15-401- 2-15-412, and this rule.
(13) "
Handling
" means possessing
			 or storing industrial hemp for any period of time on premises owned, operated,
			 or controlled by a person licensed to cultivate or process industrial hemp.
			 "Handling" also includes possessing or storing industrial hemp in a vehicle for
			 any period of time other than during its actual transport from the premises of
			 a licensed person to cultivate or process industrial hemp to the premises of
			 another licensed person.
(14)
			 "
Industrial hemp
" shall be used interchangeably with "Hemp" and
			 have the same meaning. Hemp means
Cannabis sativa L.
and any
			 part of that plant, including the seeds thereof and all derivatives, extracts,
			 cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers, whether growing or
			 not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3
			 percent on a dry weight basis, as defined in the Agriculture Improvement Act of
			 2018, 21 U.S.C. & 801 et seq. as it currently exists or as it may be
			 subsequently amended.
(15)
			 "
Industrial hemp products
" or "hemp products" means products
			 derived from, or made by, processing industrial hemp plants or plant parts,
			 including without limitation:
(A) Certified
			 seed for cultivation if the seeds originate from industrial hemp varieties;
(B) Cloth;
(C) Cordage;
(D) Fiber;
(E) Food;
(F) Fuel;
(G) Paint;
(H) Paper;
(I) Particleboard;
(J) Plastics; and
(K) Seed, seed meal, and seed oil for
			 consumption.
(16)
			 "
Law enforcement agency
" means the Arkansas State Police, DEA, or
			 other federal, state, or local law enforcement agency or drug suppression
			 unit.
(17) "
Licensed
			 Grower
" means an individual or business entity possessing a license
			 issued by the department under the authority of this chapter to grow, handle,
			 cultivate, process, or market industrial hemp or industrial hemp
			 products.
(18) "
Licensed
			 Processer
" means a person in the state authorized by the department to
			 process, handle, store, and market industrial hemp under the terms set forth in
			 a Processor Licensing Agreement, as set forth in the policies developed under
			 these rules.
(19) "
Location
			 ID
" means the unique identifier established by the applicant for each
			 unique set of GPS coordinates where industrial hemp will be grown, handled,
			 stored, or processed, which may include a field name or building
			 name.
(20) "
Marketing
"
			 means promoting or selling a product within Arkansas, in another state, or
			 outside of the United States. "Marketing" includes efforts to advertise and
			 gather information about the needs or preferences of potential consumers or
			 suppliers;
(21) "
Nonviable
			 seed
" means a seed that has been crushed, dehulled, or otherwise
			 rendered to have a zero percent germination rate.
(22) "
Person
" includes any
			 individual, partnership, corporation, company, society, or
			 association.
(23)
			 "
Pesticide
" means any substance or mixture of substances intended
			 to prevent, destroy, control, repel, attract, or mitigate any pest; intended to
			 be used as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant; or intended to be used
			 as a spray adjuvant, once they have been mixed with a U.S. Environmental
			 Protection Agency registered product.
(24) "
Phytocannabinoids
" are
			 cannabinoids that occur naturally in the cannabis plant. The classical
			 cannabinoids are formed through decarboxylation of their respective
			 2-carboxylic acids (2-COOH), a process which is catalyzed by heat, light or
			 alkaline conditions.
(25)
			 "
Plot
" means a contiguous area in a field, greenhouse, or indoor
			 growing structure containing the same variety or strain of hemp throughout the
			 area.
(26) "
Post-Harvest
			 Sample
" means a sample taken from the harvested industrial hemp material
			 from a particular plot's harvest in accordance with the procedures as defined
			 in the policies developed under these rules; the entire plot's harvest must be
			 in the same form (intact-plant, flowers, ground materials, etc.), homogenous,
			 and not mixed with non-hemp materials or industrial hemp materials from another
			 plot.
(27) "
ppm
" means
			 parts per million.
(28)
			 "
Pre-Harvest Sample
" means a composite, representative portion
			 from plants in an industrial hemp plot collected prior to harvest in accordance
			 with the procedures as defined in the policies developed under these
			 rules.
(29)
			 "
Processing
" means converting an agricultural commodity into a
			 marketable form.
(30)
			 "
Processor Licensing Agreement
" means a document executed by a
			 person and the department authorizing the person to process, handle, and store
			 industrial hemp at one or more specified locations in Arkansas under the terms
			 set forth in the document, Arkansas Industrial Hemp Act 2-15-401- 2-15-412, and
			 these rules.
(31)
"Program
" means the Arkansas Industrial Hemp Research Program as
			 established by the Arkansas Industrial Hemp Act, A.C.A. 2-15-401 et seq. and
			 these rules.
(32) "
Prohibited
			 Variety
" means a variety or strain of cannabis excluded from the
			 department's Industrial Hemp Research Program.
(33) "
Propagule
" means a plant
			 or plant part that can be utilized to grow a new plant.
(34) "
Publicly marketable hemp
			 product
" means a hemp product that meets one or more of the following
			 descriptions:
(a) the product does not include
			 any living hemp plants, viable seeds, leaf materials, floral materials, or
			 decarboxylated delta-9-THC content above 0.3 percent; and does include, without
			 limitation, the following products: bare stalks, bast fiber, hurd fiber,
			 nonviable roots, nonviable seeds, seed oils, and plant extracts (excluding
			 products containing decarboxylated delta-9-THC above 0.3 percent).
(b) the product is CBD that was derived from
			 industrial hemp, as defined in these rules; or
(c) the product is CBD that is approved as a
			 prescription medication by the United States Food and Drug
			 Administration.
(35)
			 "
Secondary Post-Harvest Sample
" means a post-harvest sample that
			 is taken in a given plot or processing, handling or storage location after the
			 first post-harvest sample is taken. A Secondary Post-Harvest Sample is taken on
			 a different day than the initial post-harvest sample.
(36) "
Secondary Pre-Harvest
			 Sample
" means a pre-harvest sample that is taken in a given plot after
			 the first pre-harvest sample is taken. A Secondary Pre-Harvest Sample is taken
			 on a different day than the initial pre-harvest sample.
(37) "
Seed source
" means the
			 origin of the seed or propagules as determined by the department.
(38) "
Signing authority
" means
			 an officer or agent of the organization with the written power to commit the
			 legal entity to a binding agreement.
(39) "
Street address
" means any
			 postal address used for official purposes, specifically closest to industrial
			 hemp plots/fields/greenhouses, storage buildings, or processing operations, for
			 means of identifying different locations under the same hemp license.
(40) "
Total THC
" means the
			 completion of the chemical reaction that converts THC-acid into delta-9-THC,
			 the intoxicating component of cannabis. The decarboxylated value may also be
			 calculated using a conversion formula that sums delta-9-THC and
			 THC-acid.
(41)
			 "
University
" means an accredited institution of higher education
			 located in Arkansas.
(42)
"Variety"
means a subdivision of a kind
			 characterized by growth, yield, plant, fruit, seed, or other characteristics by
			 which it can be differentiated from other plants of the same kind. A variety
			 also is "uniform" & "stable" - uniform in the sense that variations in
			 essential and distinctive characteristics are describable; and "stable" in the
			 sense that the variety will remain unchanged in its essential and distinctive
			 characteristics and its uniformity when reproduced or reconstituted as required
			 by the different categories of varieties.
(43) "
Variety of Concern
" means
			 any variety of hemp in the program that tests above 0.3% total delta-9-THC in
			 one (1) or more pre-harvest samples from diverse locations and production
			 conditions. A hemp variety designated as a "Variety of Concern" may be subject
			 to restrictions and additional testing. Materials testing at a total
			 delta-9-THC concentration above 0.3 percent may be subject to law enforcement
			 action.
(44) "
Volunteer hemp
			 plant
means an industrial hemp plant that was not intentionally planted,
			 but results from a previous crop, growing on its own accord from seeds or roots
			 in the years following an intentionally planted industrial hemp crop.
(B)
Definitions specific to industrial
			 hemp seed production.
Industrial Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) includes
			 varieties of these kinds:
(1) "
Dioecious
			 type
" means a type of industrial hemp that has male and female flowers
			 on separate plants.
(2)
			 "
Industrial hemp seed production
" means an industrial hemp seed
			 production field established with an appropriate generation of AOSCA certified
			 seed intended to produce a subsequent generation of AOSCA certified
			 seed.
(3) "
Licensed Plant
			 Breeder
" means an individual who has met the requirements listed in the
			 Official Standards for Seed Certification in Arkansas (Circular 15) Under Act
			 73 of 1931; A.C.A. 1987 Sections 2-18-101 through 2-18-108.
(4) "
Monoecious type
" means a
			 type of industrial hemp that has male and female flowers on the same
			 plant.
(5) "
Too male
"
			 means an intersexual plant that exceeds the ratio of male and female flowers as
			 described in the variety description.
(6) "
Unisexual female
" means a
			 monoecious type of industrial hemp plant that has sterile male and fertile
			 female flowers.
(7)
			 "
Unisexual female hybrid
" means a hybrid where the A line is a
			 unisexual female type and the B line produces male fertile flowers.