Name: Georgia’s First Black-Owned Hemp Farm
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Green Toad Hemp Farm is the first Black-owned hemp farm in the state of Georgia. Here’s how the farm works to keep its crop below the legal limit for THC.

The legal definition of hemp is a cannabis plant that has no more than 0.3% of THC.

Green Toad Hemp Farm is the first Black-owned hemp farm in the state of Georgia. Here’s how the farm works to keep its crop below the legal limit for THC.

Georgia’s First Black-Owned Hemp Farm

The legal definition of hemp is a cannabis plant that has no more than 0.3% of THC.

Body & Brain

Georgia’s First Black-Owned Hemp FarmPublished: November 2, 2021Narrator: Joints, oils, gummies, even dog treats. All of these products contain CBD from cannabis plants.Reginald Reese: We have a machine over here that does up to 25,000 pre-rolls a day.Narrator: It's big business here at The Green Toad Hemp Farm in Metter, Georgia, the first black-owned cannabis dispensary in the state. Workers cultivate and harvest the crop. Reginald Reese, co-founder of The Green Toad Farm, found his way to cannabis as a means of managing pain.Reese: I was dealing with some medical issues, I had spine surgery, hip replacement, knee surgery, hand surgery. CBD enabled me to transition off of opioids. I knew I needed to do research on this plant.Narrator: CBD or cannabidiol is a chemical found in the cannabis plant. Some users claim it to be a beneficial treatment for pain, anxiety, and insomnia, but more research is needed. The only condition that it's been scientifically determined to treat effectively, is certain types of epilepsy. Nevertheless, demand for CBD products remains high in Georgia, a state where cannabis consumption is still highly regulated and criminalized. Farmers can grow the plant, but there's a catch.Dwayne Hirsch: A definition of hemp is that legally is defined as a cannabis plant that has 0.3% or less THC in it. So the objective is to be able to grow it and harvest it before it gets to, or when it gets to that point.Narrator: CBD products containing more than 0.3% of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the chemical responsible for most of the plant's psychoactive effects are still illegal in Georgia. Green Toad sends all of its cannabis products out for testing to SJ Labs and Analytics, the first hemp testing lab in Georgia. Sarah Nicholls takes samples for contaminants like mold and bacteria and crucially ensures their THC content is within the legal range.Sarah Nicholls: We grind it up and it becomes this really fine powder. And you can actually see the powder right here, like how fine it gets. We want it to be this fine so that we can really get all the cannabinoids. And then, we'll use a filter to make sure that we're only getting our cannabinoids.Narrator: If labs has revealed a product, exceeds 0.3% THC, farmers like Reggie and Dwayne must retest the sample. If it fails again, they must then destroy the crop. And thousands of dollars and hours of labor are gone. If the crop isn't destroyed, growers may face legal consequences including arrest.Reese: Last year, we kind of went outside that window with some strains that went extremely hot, meaning that they were just right during that window and the THC levels spiked tremendously. So we had to end up destroying everything. This is our newborn chamber. We want them to get a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger, before we actually move them out to the field.Narrator: Testing of these plants will happen 15 days before they're harvested. That's when their THC content is evaluated and certified. It's a constraint that's central to Dwayne and Reggie's business model.Reese: So our goal now is a thousand by a thousand, meaning we want to be in a thousand locations in a thousand days.Hirsch: And that's what the future is for us, is to be a household name and to hold that spot and be sustainable in our business and serve as a great example of what's possible for our people.

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Georgia’s First Black-Owned Hemp Farm

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Support Provided By

Explore More

The Cannabis Question

Cannabis Sustainability

How Does a Brain on THC Compare to a Brain on CBD?