Federal officials approved the hemp production plans for another state and American Indian Tribe. The U.S. Department of Agriculture officially gave the go ahead to Maryland and the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Minnesota.
With these recent additions, that brings the total number of approved state and tribal plans to 55. Though the USDA has been put in charge of running the state program for New Hampshire and Mississippi too, as the states have opted to not run their own individual programs.
This list continues to grow as the deadline for states to officially adopt USDA rules for hemp production comes October 31. Meeting the deadline means officially abandoning the initial pilot program many states first adopted in 2014.
Maryland is continuing to run under the 2014 pilot program for the 2020 growing season. The state started its production in 2018, and didn’t place any limits on how the crop can be used. Maryland is also one of the states with a medical marijuana program and running market cannabis.
