In a county widely known for cannabis cultivation—first in the "traditional" illicit market and now legally under California law—government officials have extended a moratorium on industrial hemp cultivation and may enact a permanent ban.
Last month, the board of supervisors in Humboldt County, Calif., unanimously stretched that county’s ban on hemp cultivation to May 10, 2021, according to the Times-Standard. Then, on Jan. 7, the county’s planning commission held a hearing to make the moratorium permanent. The commission unanimously voted to forward an ordinance that would permanently ban industrial hemp cultivation to the board of supervisors, according to the Lost Coast Outpost.
The College of the Redwoods campus on Tompkins Hill Road in Eureka, Calif., would be granted an exception “for research and educational purposes,” according to the Jan. 7 planning commission agenda item.
According to an exhibit to the resolution for the permanent ban, “These regulations which prohibit Industrial Hemp cultivation except at the CR Tompkins Hill Campus for research and educational purposes are in the public interest because they reduce potential impacts to the legal cannabis industry through cross pollination and the introduction of new pests and pathogens from Industrial Hemp."
