Hemp Registration Opens For Farmers In Colorado

DENVER (AP) — Hemp registration is open for farmers in Colorado, the first state to start regulating industrial hemp since the federal government allowed limited hemp regulation.

A handful of Colorado farmers grew industrial hemp last year without interference from law enforcement or state agriculture officials.

But the Saturday opening of a Colorado state industrial hemp registry is the first opportunity for farmers to comply with licensure requirements.

Hemp farmers will have to submit to state inspections to make sure they're not growing the plant's psychoactive cousin, marijuana.

A new Farm Bill passed this year allows states that allow hemp programs to regulate the crop. Previously, permission from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration was required to grow hemp, though finished hemp has always been legal.