In the year 1937, legislators signed a law that lumped marijuana and hemp together as controlled substances. But as the years rolled on and research flourished, scientists found that hemp doesn’t contain the same potency of the psychoactive compound tetrahydrocannabinol that gives marijuana its ‘high’. And thus the 2018 Farm Bill was signed into law.
And while the rest of the country rejoices in unrestricted freedom when it comes to the use of hemp, states like Kansas are slightly lagging behind because of stringent marijuana laws that encroach into hemp territory.
The basic idea of the 2018 Farm Bill is that it legalizes hemp altogether. That means it’s no longer a controlled substance, so civilians should be able to use and enjoy its benefits without having to worry about any legal repercussions. However, while that would be the ideal situation, certain parts of the freedom overlap with marijuana laws.
The only thing that makes marijuana different from hemp is that it has more than 0.3% THC. This legal threshold is what researchers have found to be the boundary that sets hemp apart from its controlled substance cousin. With just trace amounts of THC, there’s no way that hemp can cause the same experience that marijuana does.
But other than that, the herbs look exactly the same. Their smell, appearance, texture, size, color, and everything else can be hardly distinguished at just a glance. So, for law enforcement agents to tell whether a sample is hemp or marijuana, they’d have to first send it to a lab for testing, and that could take a while.
In the state of Kansas in particular, marijuana remains fully illegal and criminalized. So, law enforcement agents are especially strict when it comes to implementing these laws. Unfortunately, the close resemblance that hemp and marijuana share make it difficult to apprehend offenders.
That said, the best way to avoid any unwanted inconvenience would to keep your raw hemp flower stash stowed away at home. Fortunately, the same limitation doesn’t exist with hemp-infused or derived products like oils and concentrates, so you can still enjoy the hemp away from home by using anything other than flower.
Some of the most common hemp products you’ll find on the market today include edibles. While most hemp vendors boast a wide selection of hemp-infused food and drink, non-specialty stores like convenience stores, gas stations, and salons also carry a modest line-up of CBD infused food products.
But for as widespread and accessible as hemp edibles are, the FDA asserts that they are not legal for purchase, sale, or consumption. The Administration claims that they have yet to approve hemp extract as a food additive. So, any of the products you find that incorporate hemp chemistry is actually illegal.
Interestingly however, these products are very hardly regulated if at all. Vendors can send them across borders, and they even show up in most farmer’s markets and pop up booths. That said, with such lenient implementation, we can expect that hemp edibles will soon be considered legal and safe.
The answer is yes, you can, as long as you have a license. It’s important to remember that for cannabis to qualify as hemp, it has to contain less than 0.3% THC. Anything more than that categorizes the harvest as marijuana, which is illegal in the state of Kansas.
Because it takes specific knowledge and technique in order to cultivate hemp to match these legal stipulations, the average backyard gardener might grow marijuana instead of hemp as a result of improper practices. That said, anyone caught growing hemp without a license will be penalized with marijuana specific laws including fines and mandatory jail time.
Kansas has some of the strictest marijuana laws in the country, and these can overlap with hemp regulations. But other than the raw flower itself, there aren’t any other hemp products that would cause issues for individuals in the state, especially because hemp is federally legal across the United States. And while edibles aren’t technically legal, Kansas officials aren’t cracking down on their distribution or sale which gives buyers even more freedom and wider options.
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