A team of scientists from Ventspils Dumas in Latvia have begun to experiment growing low-grade cannabis for fibre and other beneficial plant biomass products, which they hope will lower the cost of heating.

Ventspils is the first area in the country trying to grow the plant as alternative energy source.

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a bill that would exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marijuana. The bill, if passed, would get around the DEA's refusal to differentiate hemp from marijuana and could result in American farmers being allowed to grow the industrial crop.

Champagne, home to some of the world’s most famous wines but grapes are not the only harvest reaped from it's rolling hills. Hemp has been grown in there for thousands of years and after decades of bad publicity its making a comeback.

The hemp plant has hundreds if not thousands of uses from animal bedding to varnishes.

Russia may soon authorise the cultivation of cannabis for industrial needs, Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service said Friday.