Down a quiet country road in Warwick, N.Y., just north of the Jersey border, past homes on large lots, an elementary school and open fields that create a patchwork quilt of greens and browns, is a farm where marijuana's close relative — hemp — is grown and cultivated.
Although both belong to the cannabis family, hemp may be grown legally in New York and New Jersey, but marijuana — not yet.
Hemp, which has 0.3 percent of tetrahydrocannabinol and won't produce a high, looks and smells like marijuana, which does produce a high with its 5 to 20 percent THC levels. (THC is the psychoactive component found in marijuana — the chemical that produces a high when smoked or ingested.)
The look and smell of the plant sometimes confuses local authorities who pop in to "investigate." Once they learn the hemp plants are not "the other cannabis," the authorities are satisfied and move on.
The strong cannabis odor and moist air that comes from the wet soil welcome visitors to the East Coast's half of Fusion CBD, a hemp-growing company run by co-founder and former Bergen County resident Ed McCauley. The flagship farm is in Oregon and run by the other founder, Adam Kurtz, who comes from three generations of farmers, most recently flower growers.
There are plans to expand to Atlantic County in South Jersey by year's end, McCauley said during a recent tour of the New York facility.