Ever since hemp products started being accepted as a legal crop, cultivators have begun to search for new ways to use it. However, with the legalization of hemp came the introduction of new regulations. These regulations were specifically surrounding its sale thanks to the introduction of the 2018 Farm Bill. Specifically, in the US, it is illegal in most states to sell hemp with more than 0.3 percent of THC. As a result of this rule, cultivators have started looking for ways to lower the THC in plants. This would allow more of their plants to be sold across the country. As such, researchers have started looking into what causes the creation of hot hemp and how cultivators can avoid it. After performing an experiment, the researchers found that the anecdotal belief that hot hemp is caused by environmental factors is incorrect.

Background

For clarification, the phrase “hot hemp” doesn’t refer to spicy hemp plants or ones that have a higher temperature as the name suggests. Instead, it refers to any hemp plant that surpasses the 0.3 percent THC limit that the Farm Bill has introduced. The hemp plants themselves are the ones that can register as “hot,” but hemp products cannot. This is a problem because, even though processing the plant into the product tends to remove THC, it is the plant that is tested.

Study

In order to find the cause of hot hemp, researchers performed an experiment on samples from three cultivars, which is a plant created through selective breeding. Over the course of three weeks, the researchers introduced five stress treatments to them to see if they were affected. These stress treatments included flooding, a plant growth regulator, powdery mildew, herbicide, and physical wounding. Once the three weeks had passed, the researchers examined the cannabinoid production in each of the samples.

Results

Save for the herbicide treatment, none of the stress treatments demonstrated any change in cannabinoid levels. The plants treated with herbicide were found to be nearly dead as a result of their treatment. As a result, it was found that there was no evidence that any of the stressors caused the alteration of THC concentration.

Discussion

There is currently lack of evidence to support the belief that environmental factors affect the THC concentrations of hemp plants. Because of this, the researchers believe it is the plants’ genes that cause it. As such, in order to solve this problem, the genes that result in hot hemp will need to be bred out of the plant.

That said, there were some limitations to this experiment. Firstly, parts of the still growing plants, rather than the whole plant, were used in order to test for cannabinoids. As such, the researchers may have had a different outcome if they tested the full plant. Additionally, the researchers only used stressors from a very specific region of the US. As such, they did not test for stressors found in warmer and dryer environments.

As a result of these limitations with the study, researchers need to perform more in-depth experiments before any plans can be made regarding this issue of hot hemp.

Make sure to check back for more cannabis and hemp related news.