By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services/Arizona Daily Star
Arizonans may get a chance to decide if they want to let farmers here grow an industrial — and not psychoactive — version of marijuana.
In essence, the measure would empower the state Department of Agriculture to license people to grow hemp. This essentially is marijuana but with a concentration of THC, the psychoactive element, that is no greater than three-tenths of 1 percent.
The organization, Hemp Our World, needs 150,642 valid signatures on petitions by July 7, 2016, to put it on the general election ballot that year.
Christian Carrasco, who is chairing the ballot effort, said other states such as Kentucky and Colorado already have adopted similar laws. Carrasco said the goal will be to educate Arizona voters about the benefits of hemp — and that this has nothing to do with the medical or recreational use of marijuana.
