The harvest burned before the rules changed

Smoke rose over a field near Mendon. Farmer Cole Cramm told local station WGEM that he was destroying his hemp harvest ahead of new Illinois rules. Under the state’s published timetable, from 12 November finished ingestible or topical products containing more than 0.4 mg of total THC per container will be classed as cannabis, a category with its own licensing regime. On 5 November a trade association and five companies asked a federal court to suspend the rules. Cramm says buyers will stop taking flower, and he does not think paying US$5,000 for a processing licence would be worthwhile.