Nevada Hemp Laws and Regulations
The legal definition of marijuana in Nevada comprises hemp because it’s technically a cannabis plant. Therefore, Nevada laws on marijuana prohibit the cultivation, manufacture and sale of raw hemp in the state. This is despite the fact that more hemp products are exported to the United States than to any other country, and the United States itself used to be a leading producer of hemp, second only to cotton in some markets.
Although Las Vegas’s definition of marijuana includes hemp, hemp is very different than marijuana. Many experts agree that smoking hemp does not produce a high, which is because hemp contains far less THC than marijuana. Hemp plants can be easily distinguished from marijuana, the former growing much taller. And unlike marijuana, hemp has hundreds of practical purposes, as it can be used to make everything from paper, clothes, oil, food and medicines.
At this time, some states have challenged federal law by legalizing the cultivation of hemp (these states are North Dakota, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana and West Virginia). However, resistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration has thus far thwarted their efforts to begin producing. For more information on hemp in Nevada as well as the movement to remove hemp from Nevada’s legal definition of marijuana, contact the Nevada Office of the Hemp and Cannabis Foundation.
