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Home > News > Policy > Content Piece

European Parliament Votes to Increase Hemp’s THC Limit to 0.3%

By Leo Bear-McGuinness

Published: Oct 28, 2020   
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The European Parliament has voted to increase the level of THC permitted in legal industrial hemp from 0.2 percent to 0.3 percent.

As reported by Hemp Industry Daily, the vote was accompanied by another amendment, which would add hemp to the sectors covered by European Union marketing standards.


Higher hemp

Adopted by the parliament on October 23, the new THC amendment reads:

“As regards the areas used for the production of hemp, in order to preserve public health and to ensure the coherence with other bodies of legislation, the use of hemp seeds varieties with tetrahydrocannabinol content below 0,3 % should be part of the definition of eligible hectare.”

The amendment was first introduced last year by the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development. Now, after being approved by the European Parliament, it just has to be approved by the European Commission and Council to become law.

If sanctioned, the increase from 0.2 to 0.3 percent would bring the EU’s THC limit in line with those in non-European counties, such as the US and Canada.

The change could thus see in a surge of hemp research and development in Europe.

“The increase of THC level would allow new varieties to enter the market and to be bred, resulting in a better adaptation of the crops to the climatic conditions of the different EU territories,” according to the European Industrial Hemp Association.

Previously, the EU limit on THC in hemp has been as high as 0.5 percent, but waves of reform over the past few decades have driven the limit lower and lower.  

 

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