For a food or cosmetics buyer, or a private-label owner, the word «hemp» often raises the same concern: whether this raw material has anything to do with narcotic substances. It is a fair question, and the answer sits at the intersection of two disciplines — botany and chemistry on one side, law on the other. Below we look at where cannabinoids actually form in the plant, why seeds and seed-derived products are a fundamentally different matter, how THC content is confirmed instrumentally, and how Russian law separates industrial hemp from the narcotic kind.
One plant species, two distinct legal categories
Botanically, Cannabis sativa is a single species. But in terms of both law and chemical composition, «industrial (technical) hemp» and «narcotic» cannabis are separate categories, divided by their content of psychoactive compounds and by their approved use. Industrial hemp is grown for seed and fibre; its varieties were bred and entered into the register precisely because their psychoactive content is reduced to minimal, regulated levels.
So it is more accurate to speak not of «safe» versus «dangerous» hemp in general, but of a specific variety, its origin, and the specific part of the plant that goes into processing. It is these three factors — not the name of the plant — that determine the composition of the final product.
Where cannabinoids are located in the plant
Cannabinoids — tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, psychoactive), cannabidiol (CBD, non-psychoactive), cannabigerol (CBG) and others — are synthesised and stored in glandular trichomes. These are microscopic resin glands concentrated on the female inflorescences, bracts and upper leaves of the plant. That is where the resin, and with it the cannabinoids, accumulate.
The seeds themselves contain virtually no cannabinoids — they have none of the trichomes that produce these compounds. The trace amounts sometimes detected on the seed surface come from outside: during harvesting and threshing the seed comes into contact with resin from the inflorescences. This is surface contamination, not the composition of the seed itself, and it is removed during cleaning and dehulling (removal of the outer shell).
Why seed products are a separate matter
Deep-processed seed products — cleaned kernel, cold-pressed green oil, protein flour, fibre and cracked seed — are made from the seed, not from the inflorescences and leaves. This is the key distinction. The raw material is the part of the plant where cannabinoids do not form in the first place, and the processing stages of cleaning and dehulling additionally remove any possible surface contamination.
- Cleaned kernel — the inner part of the seed after the hull is removed; a source of protein (30%+).
- Cold-pressed green oil — designated in INCI terms as Cannabis Sativa Seed Oil, i.e. oil from the seed specifically.
- Protein flour, fibre (54 g per 100 g) and cracked seed — also seed-processing products, not products of the flowering part.
So for seed products, the question «is there a narcotic substance here» comes down not to a general property of the plant, but to which part of the plant the product is made from and how it has been cleaned.
How cannabinoid content is measured
The presence and quantity of cannabinoids are not judged by eye — they are determined by instrumental methods. The main ones are gas chromatography (GC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and their combination with mass spectrometry (GC-MS and HPLC-MS). These methods separate a mixture into individual compounds and identify each of them.
The sensitivity of such analysis is very high: cannabinoids are detected down to thousandths of a percent. That is precisely why a laboratory statement of «0% THC» does not mean a literal absolute zero. Read correctly, it means «trace amounts within the limits established by legislation, confirmed instrumentally». This is the difference between strict chemical precision and the everyday reading of the phrase.
What Russian legislation says
The legal framework is built around specific varieties and thresholds. The State Register of Breeding Achievements Approved for Use includes 21 low-narcotic hemp varieties (as of 2016). A variety may be entered into the register only if the THC content in the dry mass of the leaves and top inflorescences does not exceed 0.1% — as established by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 101 of 6 February 2020.
Cultivation is governed by Federal Law No. 3-FZ of 08.01.1998 (Article 18): industrial cultivation is permitted for legal entities as well as sole proprietors and peasant farm enterprises, and, according to clarifications from the Ministry of Agriculture, no licence is required for this. Decree No. 101 also prohibits the use of seeds of the fourth and later reproductions. Low-narcotic varieties are bred by specialised research institutions — the Penza, Krasnodar and Chuvash agricultural research institutes.
CBD is neither a food ingredient nor a selling point
Cannabidiol (CBD) deserves a separate note. Despite the growing interest in it on foreign markets, within the Russian legal framework CBD is not an approved food ingredient, and its content cannot be presented as a consumer advantage of a product. Stating «contains CBD» as a merit of a food product is incorrect.
For seed products this is not a limitation but a consequence of their nature: CBD, like other cannabinoids, is virtually absent from the seed itself. Positioning is therefore built around real characteristics — protein, the fatty-acid profile of the oil, fibre — rather than around cannabinoids.
How to word this correctly on packaging and in specifications
Precise wording matters both legally and reputationally. On a label and in a specification, the appropriate phrasing is «contains no narcotic substances, laboratory-confirmed», rather than the colloquial «drug-free». The former rests on the result of instrumental analysis and on regulatory thresholds; the latter is subjective and carries no verifiable meaning.
This approach at once addresses the concerns of the buyer and the QA specialist and keeps communication within the bounds of what can be confirmed by a document — without over-promising and without everyday slang.
Documentary confirmation of composition
Everything said above is meaningful only when it is backed by documents. For the products of the Makosh plant, the THC and cannabidiol content is confirmed by the Report of the Tula Laboratory of Forensic Expertise of the Ministry of Justice of Russia No. 2489 of 09.12.2025; this is supported by the standard base for food production — FSSC 22000 v6 certification (including HACCP) and valid TR CU declarations of conformity. The full set of documents and laboratory reports is provided on request.
This is what we make
Our own full-cycle plant in the Uzlovaya SEZ. Wholesale, EAEU documents, 0% THC.
Hulled hemp hearts (separated)
Protein over 30% · omega-3/6
Cold-pressed green hemp seed oil
Omega-6 : omega-3 = 3.5 : 1
Hemp protein flour
Protein 40–45 g/100 g
We’ll match a product to your production need and send samples with documents.