Plants pulled from P.E.I. farm fields are hemp, not marijuana say RCMP

Plants discovered in several farm fields in P.E.I. in late July are hemp, not marijuana say RCMP.

Cpl. Andy Cook of the Prince District Drug Unit said lab tests showed the plants had a low level of THC in them, which is the active ingredient in marijuana.

"They exhibited some signs that were also consistent with marijuana plants, so in the interest of determining definitively what we were dealing with we had them sent away and had a quantitative analysis done which showed the level of THC in them," said Corporal Andy Cook, who is in charge of the Prince District Drug Unit.

"So the verdict is they are hemp plants because the active ingredient in it is not really at a level where it would be usable to give you the hallucinogenic affects."

It took RCMP five days to pull the thousands of plants from the field.

People require a licence to grow hemp in Canada. Cook says because the hemp was planted accidentally by farmers who were growing borage plants, the RCMP will not be laying charges.  

Cook says RCMP are still waiting for an order from Health Canada to destroy the hemp plants.