With federal restrictions easing, Hawaii has taken small but deliberate steps toward introducing industrial hemp into our agricultural mainstream. It’s not hard to understand why.

Promoters of the crop tout the plant as something of a miracle. It’s a fast-growing source of high-quality fiber for paper and fabric. It sucks up toxins in the soil. It’s a renewable biofuel. It’s the source of wildly popular cannabidiol (CBD) “wellness” products of unproven efficacy. And in Hawaii, you can harvest it three to four times a year.

The one thing you can’t do with industrial hemp — a cannabis plant — is get high. Federal regulations requires that the plants contain no more than 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical that causes those mind-altering effects that make marijuana so popular.

For classification purposes, industrial hemp isn’t marijuana. But it’s close enough to make it a regulatory headache. The state Department of Agriculture reported that more than half of the hemp crops cultivated in Hawaii over the past year, as part of its research pilot program, produced more than the allowable limit of THC. Most of the plants were destroyed.

Is this an insurmountable problem? It shouldn’t be. Products with much higher THC levels already have their own niche in the marketplace, as medicine in Hawaii and recreation in other states. With more research and proper regulation, it should be possible to do what’s been done since agriculture was invented: develop a stable, commercial scale crop with desirable traits, while reducing the undesirable ones.