MADISON – Attorney General Brad Schimel says Wisconsin farmers who grow industrial hemp can produce CBD oil from it.

Schimel’s statement on May 10 is a reversal from a Justice Department memo last month that said only doctors and pharmacies can distribute the oil and people can possess it only with a doctor’s certification.

Hundreds of farmers have applied for new state licenses that would allow them to grow industrial hemp. Many hope to produce and sell CBD oil, which can be used to treat seizures. The DOJ memo left many of these farmers wondering whether it would be worth their time to start growing hemp.

The new guidance came on the heels of a May 9 meeting with the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ), Schimel and his staff, members of the Wisconsin State Legislature, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation (WFBF), and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) regarding Wisconsin’s new industrial hemp research pilot program.

The meeting focused on the effect of 2017 Wisconsin Act 100 on Wisconsin’s existing law concerning CBD and THC. [Read more at Wisconson State Farmer]