Yes. The 2018 Farm Bill made growing industrial hemp federally legal, as long as the plant tests at or below 0.3 percent THC. You still need a license under a USDA-approved state, tribal, or federal hemp plan, and each state sets its own permitting, testing, and acreage rules. THC itself remains a Schedule I drug, so an unlicensed field or a crop that tests hot is treated as marijuana.
Yes. You can plant hemp in the USA. The 2018 Farm Bill made it federally legal to grow industrial hemp by removing hemp from the Controlled Substances Act definition of marijuana. Since then hemp has been treated as an agricultural crop, regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture rather than the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Federally legal is not the same as unregulated. Every grower has to be licensed, and each state sets its own rules for permitting, licensing, testing, and reporting, with its own limitations on top of the federal baseline.
The law defines hemp as Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant with a delta-9 THC concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis. Anything at or below that line is hemp and is legal to grow. Anything above it is marijuana under federal law. If you want the full definition, read What is hemp?
The USDA runs the licensing framework. To grow hemp you must hold a license under a USDA-approved state plan, a USDA-approved tribal plan, or directly from the USDA in states that do not run their own program. Licensing typically involves an application, a background check, GPS coordinates for every field, pre-harvest THC sampling by an approved lab, and disposal or remediation of any crop that tests hot.
State programs differ on fees, acreage minimums, allowed varieties, testing windows, and whether you can grow for flower, grain, fiber, or all three. A few states restrict or ban hemp cultivation outright, and some cities and counties add zoning limits. Check your state department of agriculture before you order seed. Our answer on whether hemp is legal in all 50 states covers the state-by-state picture.
Technically yes, if you get the license. In practice, hemp is the same species as marijuana and looks and smells identical in the field. If law enforcement suspects you are growing a high-THC variety of cannabis, they are very likely to come after you and test the plants. Your license, your field registration, and your lab results are what separate a legal hemp crop from a felony, so keep them current and on hand.
It is a quasi situation. Hemp is legal, but Cannabis sativa as a whole is still regulated, and THC specifically is still a Schedule I controlled substance. A hemp plant that tests above 0.3 percent THC is legally marijuana the moment the result comes back, no matter what seed you planted.
The FY2026 agriculture appropriations act signed November 12, 2025 narrows the federal definition of hemp effective November 12, 2026. The 0.3 percent limit will be measured as total THC, including THCA, rather than delta-9 THC alone, and finished consumable products will be capped at 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container. Growers, especially those raising hemp for flower and extraction, should plan varieties and testing around the total THC standard.
The short version: yes, you can plant hemp in the USA, but only with a license, only under your state's rules, and only if your crop stays under the THC limit.