OTTAWA, March 21 (UPI) -- A Canadian government spokesman said Monday that proposed legislation being considered by Parliament will allow farmers to grow cannabis, or hemp, for commercial purposes after a 50 year ban.
Health department spokesman Bruce Rowsell said under the proposed legislation, farmers would only be allowed to grow forms of hemp that contain virtually no THC, the hallucinogenic chemical in cannabis.
Rowsell said farmers would be required to have a license to grow the crop, which can be harvested to make rope and paper products.
He said farm groups lobbied the government to let them grow hemp as a way of replacing tobacco and other crops. Rowsell said farmers in the United Kingdom, France and eastern Europe are allowed to grow hemp crops that contain less than 0.3 percent THC, and that is the standard that will be used in Canada.
The clearance to grow hemp is contained in a wider package of changes to Canadian narcotic control laws currently before Parliament.
Rowsell said Parliament has not yet dealt with the proposal to allow farmers to grow hemp, and said he didn't know if there would be opposition to it.