Opposition MP have raised concerns about an industrial hemp trial being conducted without any reports on its environmental impact.
Government officials appeared before the Primary Production Select Committee to report on the first year of a two year trial of industrial hemp.
Nineteen hectares of industrial hemp was grown under regulated conditions. Three crops were found to contain the psychoactive drug Tetarhyrdocannibinol (THC) above the maximum allowable limit and were destroyed by the police as required under the conditions of the growers licences.
Act MP Gerry Eckhoff expressed concern the open air trial was allowed to go ahead without an environmental impact report being carried out and National MP Phil Heatley wanted to know why an environmental impact report was not completed.
Eckhoff said seed from the trial crops can be widely dispersed in bird droppings.
Peter Pratt of the Health Ministry told the committee that the measures put in place for the testing and security of the crops worked well.
Ministry of Agriculture senior policy analyst Tony Van Der Lem said dispersal of seed is more likely to be a concern to illicit growers because it could lower the potency of their crops grown outdoors.
