The South Carolina Hemp Farming Act — Title 46, Chapter 55

Last verified: May 2026

The 2014 Industrial Hemp Authorization — SCDA Pilot

South Carolina’s formal entry into hemp policy began in 2014 when the General Assembly passed Act 269, authorizing the South Carolina Department of Agriculture to study industrial hemp cultivation under the federal 2014 Farm Bill’s § 7606 industrial-hemp research provision. SCDA partnered with Clemson University and limited cultivation to research plots. The 2014 framework predated the federal 2018 Farm Bill and operated under research-only constraints.

The 2017 South Carolina Hemp Farming Act (Act 37)

Senate Bill 559 / House Bill 3559, signed by Gov. Henry McMaster on May 10, 2017, created the first commercial hemp framework in South Carolina. Key features:

• 20-farmer pilot cap. SCDA could permit no more than 20 farmers in the inaugural year; each was capped at 20 acres of outdoor cultivation.
• SCDA administering authority. Permits, inspections, and THC sampling were vested in SCDA, not in any health agency. This routing — agriculture rather than public health — matters for current debates about hemp-derived intoxicants because SCDA does not have the regulatory machinery to manage consumer-product safety the way DPH would.
• 0.3% delta-9 THC threshold. Mirroring federal practice, hemp was defined by reference to delta-9 THC concentration on a dry-weight basis. The statute did not address THCA, delta-8, delta-10, HHC, THC-O, or any other novel cannabinoid — an omission that has driven the entire 2024-26 hemp-intoxicant retail crisis.
• Background-check requirement. Permitted growers underwent SLED criminal background checks.

The 2019 Hemp Farming Act Amendments (Act 14)

House Bill 3449, signed March 28, 2019, was a substantial rewrite that brought the SC framework into line with the federal 2018 Farm Bill’s commercial hemp authorization. The 2019 amendments:

• Removed the 20-farmer cap. Any qualified applicant who passes background check and meets siting requirements may be permitted.
• Doubled per-grower acreage to 40. Combined with the lifted farmer cap, this allowed total state acreage to scale.
• Created a separate processor / handler permit category. Processors and handlers (companies that buy raw hemp from growers, extract cannabinoids, and produce consumer goods) now register separately.
• Aligned with the federal 2018 Farm Bill. South Carolina submitted a state hemp plan to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and operates under the federally approved framework.

Acreage Trajectory: From 256 Acres to 40 Acres

The headline arithmetic of South Carolina hemp acreage tells the story of the 2019-21 cannabinoid extraction boom and the 2022-25 collapse:

• 2018 pilot: 20 farmers, 256 acres planted, 233 acres harvested. Modest, deliberately bounded.
• 2019: 113 farmers, ~3,300 acres. Federal Farm Bill enthusiasm; CBD floor prices still high.
• 2020: 270 farmers + 14 processors + 14 handlers; ~3,400 acres. Peak year. CBD-extract prices already softening.
• 2021: 216 farmers, ~1,300 acres. CBD floor prices crash; many growers exit floral-hemp production.
• 2024: 98 permitted farmers; 40 outdoor acres; 62,600 sq ft indoor; only 10 acres harvested.
• 2025: 80 permitted farmers (preliminary).

Compare: South Carolina farmers planted approximately 380,000 acres of soybeans in 2024. The hemp industry’s footprint as a crop is now small. The retail-product footprint — smoke shops, gas stations, vape stores, liquor stores selling delta-8 / delta-9 / THCA / HHC products — is substantial and largely supplied by out-of-state hemp grown in larger production states (Oregon, Colorado, Kentucky, North Carolina). See delta / THCA retail page.

What the Act Does Not Cover

The Hemp Farming Act regulates the cultivation of hemp plants and (since 2019) processor / handler permitting. It does not:

• Define or regulate "consumable hemp products" (gummies, vape carts, beverages, tinctures, smokable hemp flower)
• Set retail-license requirements, age limits, packaging rules, dosing caps, or labeling standards for consumer products
• Address synthetic or semi-synthetic cannabinoids (delta-8, HHC, THC-O), which are derived through chemical conversion of CBD rather than naturally extracted
• Address THCA flower, which contains only trace delta-9 THC at point of sale but converts to delta-9 when heated

The legal vacuum between cultivation regulation (SCDA) and consumer-product regulation (no agency) is the policy gap that the 2025-26 session’s competing hemp-regulation bills (H.3924, H.3935, H.4758, H.4759) attempt to fill. See 2025-26 hemp bills page.

SCDA Hemp Farming Program Operations

The SCDA Hemp Farming Program is administered out of the Wade Hampton Office Building, 1200 Senate Street, Columbia. Program Coordinator William R. Attaway (wattaway@scda.sc.gov) and Communications Director Eva Moore (emoore@scda.sc.gov) are the principal staff contacts. The program permit application process includes a SLED background check, a site map of cultivation locations, and an annual permit fee. SCDA conducts pre-harvest THC sampling under the federally approved state plan; samples that exceed 0.3% delta-9 THC trigger destruction of the lot.

How the Act Interacts with the 2018 Farm Bill

The federal 2018 Farm Bill (PL 115-334) preempted the federal Controlled Substances Act’s prior treatment of hemp by carving out hemp (cannabis sativa containing 0.3% or less delta-9 THC by dry weight) from the CSA Schedule I marijuana definition. Each state’s hemp program operates either under (a) a USDA-approved state plan or (b) the USDA’s default plan. South Carolina chose the state-plan route. Importantly, the 2018 Farm Bill’s definition references delta-9 THC only — the omission that has enabled the entire downstream hemp-intoxicant retail wave.

The Federal Hemp Cliff — November 12, 2026

⚠️ The federal 2026 Farm Bill / appropriations rider as enacted in PL 119-37 § 781 caps THC in nationally sold consumer hemp products at 0.4 mg per package effective November 12, 2026, redefines hemp using a total THC threshold (including THCA) of 0.3%, and bans synthetic / non-naturally-occurring cannabinoids. The cliff will substantially reset the SC hemp consumer market regardless of what the General Assembly enacts in the 2025-26 session. See federal hemp cliff page.