A few years ago, most people only thought of prohibited intoxicants when talking about hemp.
Things are different now. Today, for example, hemp and its active ingredients can be found in cosmetic products and dietary supplements.
Hemp seeds, in particular, can enrich the diet in a particularly healthy and valuable way, and many hemp fans are wondering whether the healthy seeds can be grown at home.
Besides, you can legally order the best cannabis seeds online on SensorySeeds and get them delivered to your doorstep.
Cannabis seeds and their properties
If hemp is only seen as an intoxicant, the many favourable properties of the hemp plant are suppressed. Although the female hemp plant can be abused as a drug, hemp is not always necessarily an intoxicant.
Finally, there are types of hemp (so-called industrial hemp) that only contain a minimal amount of the intoxicating THC. They are cultivated, for example, to obtain hemp fibres from them. However, the seeds and parts of these plants do not have an intoxicating effect.
Plants that lack the intoxicating THC have other uses besides fibre production. After all, the seeds of these plants contain many valuable ingredients and are therefore ideal for consumption. But this is not only due to the pleasant nutty taste of the seeds of the hemp seed oil made from them. In addition, the hemp seeds and the oils obtained from them are particularly healthy: hemp seeds contain more than 30 per cent fat.
Therefore, they can be used excellently for the production of oils. The extracted oils then contain – just like the seeds themselves – valuable omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Both fatty acids are exceptionally healthy and also essential. However, it means that they must be supplied to the body through food.
In addition, the seeds contain high-quality proteins, vitamin E and many trace elements and minerals. For many people, these valuable ingredients and their positive health effects are a reason to consume hemp seeds regularly. To save costs, many consumers also want to grow the seeds themselves. However, the legal situation on this is not only clear.
Legal cultivation of industrial hemp?
As already seen, there are differences with hemp. Not all plants contain the intoxicating substance THC. The plants without significant THC content are called industrial hemp. They can neither be misused as an anaesthetic nor used for medical pain therapy.
Nevertheless, the plant fibres can be processed, or medicinal and edible oils can be made from plant seeds. However, industrial hemp cannot be used as an intoxicant does not mean that it can also be cultivated on one’s own initiative. At least that applies to private individuals.
The cultivation of industrial hemp is only permitted to professional suppliers who have a special permit.
Personal cannabis cultivation is always illegal.
As seen, a special cultivation licence is required for the legal cultivation of hemp plants and thus for the extraction of their seeds. However, this can only be awarded to companies. The companies have to go through an official award procedure and meet specific safety standards. On the other hand, private individuals cannot theoretically be issued with a required licence. It applies to both commercial and medicinal hemp (with THC content).
It means that even seriously ill people who legally consume cannabis for medical reasons are still prohibited from cultivating them themselves.
Professional cannabis cultivation has been legal for years
Cannabis has been approved as a medical product in some European countries, such as Germany, allowing it since 2018. However, as already explained, this does not mean that everyone in the country can grow hemp on their own. Like other prescription medicines, hemp cannot simply be produced at home.
This is a real problem for people who are legally allowed to use cannabis for medical reasons. Finally, the costs and co-payments for medical cannabis products are relatively high. The additional payments can amount to several hundred euros per month for regular consumption. The main reason for the high costs is that medical cannabis products are often imported from other countries.
Theoretically, cannabis has also been cultivated by professional companies in Germany since the beginning of 2019. However, to ensure the quality of the end product, licences are only granted to companies with great caution. Therefore, even for specialized companies, it is challenging to obtain a cultivation licence.
Penalties for illegal hemp cultivation
Buying or trading cannabis seeds is a legal grey area. This is since the seeds of the cannabis plant do not contain any prohibited substances and can therefore be purchased legally.
However, procurement can be punishable if the seeds are not consumed but used for illegal cannabis cultivation. Even if the only purpose of cultivation is to produce new (legal) seeds, it is against the law. The punishable cannabis cultivation begins when hemp seeds are placed in the ground so that a plant can develop from them.
Exactly how cultivation is ultimately penalized varies from state to state.
In general, however, it can be said that the level of the punishment increases with the professionalism of the cultivation and the size of the plant achieved.
This means that the penalty is higher if plants several centimetres tall have already been grown in a professional breeding facility. A single, small plant in a flower bed, on the other hand, carries a lower penalty.
So, when you order your cannabis seeds online at SensorySeeds.com, remember they are collectables and not sold to be grown in the UK!