BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The state's Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) announced on Wednesday that participants in a state farmland conservation program will now be able to grow hemp and cannabis on their land.
The conservation program, the Agricultural Preservation Restriction, protects around 73,000 acres of land in Massachusetts from development, specifically for use in farming.
The state said now, public comments received in a series of listening sessions last January made the Department reconsider its rules about growing cannabis and hemp on the land.
Here's the catch: cannabis growing will be restricted to APR land that wasn't financed with federal funds. Why? Because marijuana is still a Schedule I Controlled Substance under federal law.
MDAR points out that the vast majority of APR land has been bought with federal funds since the early 1990's.
Growing hemp will be allowed on all 70,000-plus acres, because it's legal at both the state and federal level.
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Written by Chaiel Schaffel
(Photo: Getty Images)