WHEELING – Doug Flight loves to wear his T-shirt made from hemp fiber. But one of the biggest challenges he sees is explaining to those around him that you just can’t smoke it.

“The real challenge has been spending every day educating people on hemp, and dismissing the stigma of, ‘hey, can I smoke that shirt’ nonsense,” the Wheeling resident said. “I accepted that fact basically when I went into business. I made a decision that I’ll be spending the rest of my life educating people on the benefits of hemp. Of how we need to bring it back as an agricultural commodity, especially here in West Virginia.”

He said this as someone who currently sells imported hemp products, such as soaps and nutritional supplements, and as a future farmer of this potential cash crop. Somewhere along the Ohio/Marshall County line, Flight will plant two 55-foot by 45-foot rectangular plots with industrial hemp seed in June.

He’s one of nine independent growers who will foster the crop throughout West Virginia for the first time since World War II, with hopes their actions may spur new economic opportunity.

What, Really, Is Hemp?

Hemp is indeed listed by the federal government under the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule I narcotic for being a variety of cannabis. However, it only contains a very small amount of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC – the ingredient in marijuana which causes users to get high.

Before it was criminalized, hemp was grown for its fibrous content to produce a vast number of textiles. Today, it shows promise as a composite material for use in plastics, biofuels and nutrition products.

West Virginia passed the Industrial Hemp Development Act in 2002 permitting the development of a regulated industrial hemp industry. Little happened, though, because under federal law hemp was still a sensitive matter.

In 2014, President Barack Obama signed the Industrial Hemp Amendment to the Agricultural Act of 2014 to define industrial hemp as “distinct,” allowing institutions of higher education and state-sponsored agricultural departments to conduct research on the crop.

In 2015, West Virginia amended its own act to drop high grow fees stipulated by the original bill, opening the doors for farmers who may have interest. Currently, under West Virginia statute, hemp can be grown for limited commercial use in that it can only be sold as raw material or product within the state.

How Can Hemp Benefit W.Va.?

Flight and others believe industrial hemp can be a valuable commodity for West Virginia, as the state seeks new means of economic development. The Hemp Industries Association, a national organization that advocates for hemp production, estimates the total retail value of related products in the United States in 2015 was $573 million. These products were mostly imported.

Flight said he wants to use his hemp to create food and nutrition products, but he will also, along with two other licensed growers, work with West Virginia University in a trial program, so the university can collect data to understand better the plant’s effects on soil, and to see which varieties grow best in West Virginia’s climate.

“There’s very little scientific information on how hemp will grow in West Virginia,” Louis McDonald, professor of soil sciences at WVU, said.

Flight said hemp can pull heavy metals and various toxins from the soil, while replacing them with nutrients. He said he believes Appalachian states are perfect locations for hemp crops, as they could potentially repair soil stripped of nutrients by coal mining.

Erik Janus, member of the board of directors for the West Virginia Hemp Industries Association, said it only makes sense to bring the hemp industry here. He firmly believes it could be a job creator.

“Coal’s dead, so what do we do now?” he said. “I think sustainable agriculture is basically at the heart of it.”

Janus is also involved with Agri-Carb Electric Corp., a start-up company eager to capitalize on a budding West Virginia hemp industry. He said the company wants to build the infrastructure necessary for hemp growers to move their products to market.

Janus said hemp advocates in West Virginia are keeping a close eye on movements by the Legislature. Earlier this year, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin vetoed an amendment to West Virginia’s Industrial Hemp Development Act that stipulated no one could grow hemp for commercial purposes – only for institutional research.

Janus said this was a possible step backward. He also agrees with Flight that hemp growers have a battle of perception to fight. He said it’s a skirmish that delays this potential industry’s progress.

“I feel like I have to correct what is stoner mythology on a 24-hour basis,” Janus said.

How Will it Work?

All nine independent growers, including Flight, will report their findings to the West Virginia Department of Agriculture. WVU and the Department of Agriculture have long-term interest in studying industrial hemp, but currently there’s little funding for such programs. This was a key reason why independent growers were permitted to participate, to mitigate the current financial burden.

Flight said he went through extensive vetting to take part in the program. Aside from applying for a grower’s permit through the Department of Agriculture, he underwent West Virginia and FBI background checks.

WVU also visited his planned grow site to test the soil, and the site’s coordinates were reported to the Department of Agriculture, which informed the West Virginia State Police about the site, so the crop isn’t mistaken for marijuana, which is visually similar to hemp.

The seeds were sourced from Italy and Canada by the West Virginia Hemp Farmers Cooperative. Once in the country, they were handed to the Department of Agriculture. The department then hand-delivered the seeds to Flight.

Department of Agriculture representatives will continue to visit Flight’s grow site to test the plants for their THC content to assure they don’t exceed West Virginia’s limit of 1-percent total THC volume. Flight said he’ll also notify Wheeling police and the Ohio and Marshall county sheriff’s departments so they, too, will understand what he’s growing.

“When you’re looking at turning on a whole new composite industry, there’s a lot that goes into that,” J. Morgan Leach, executive director of the West Virginia Hemp Farmers Cooperative, said.

Morgan said West Virginia has opportunity in growing hemp, but the state’s real promise is in processing raw hemp material for use in textiles, plastics and fuels. He said the Mountain State’s geography will offer some farm land, but its retired industrial backbone could be effectively realigned to take advantage of a potential hemp boom.

Farmers in nearby Kentucky cultivated nearly 1,700 acres of hemp in 2015. Colorado has also seen some investment in the crop, as well as Hawaii, Indiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont.