Indiana Hemp License: Requirements, Testing, and Penalties

An Indiana hemp license is issued by the Office of Indiana State Chemist (OISC) under Indiana Code 15-15-13, not by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.¹ OISC licenses growers, handlers, and agricultural hemp seed producers, and all applications, reports, and site changes go through its online hemp licensing portal. The Indiana State Department of Agriculture works on hemp marketing and research but does not handle licensing.²

Which License You Need

Indiana issues three license types, and the one you need depends on what you actually plan to do with the plant.

A grower license covers cultivation in fields, greenhouses, and other enclosed facilities, including clone production.
A handler license is required if you process, dry, or transport hemp for others.
An agricultural hemp seed production license is required in addition to a grower license if you produce hemp seed for sale or distribution.

All three are applied for through the OISC hemp licensing portal, which is the only accepted channel.¹

What the Application Requires

A grower or seed production application asks for your name and address, the name and address of your hemp operation, GPS coordinates in decimal format, and a legal description for every property where hemp activity will take place.³ Each site must be given a unique name and labeled by its function, such as grow site, processing site, or greenhouse.⁴

A nonrefundable application fee is required. The amount is set by the state seed commissioner and must include the cost of the criminal background check.⁵ Check the OISC portal for the current fee before you apply, since it can change year to year.

Background Check

Every key participant on the license must consent to a state or national criminal history background check through the Indiana State Police.⁵ The check must be dated within 60 days of your application; an expired check will be rejected.¹

Indiana’s eligibility rule is stricter than the federal baseline. The 2018 Farm Bill bars anyone with a drug-related felony conviction in the past 10 years from producing hemp.⁶ Indiana extends that bar to drug-related misdemeanors as well. Applicants must sign a statement under penalty of perjury confirming they have no qualifying drug convictions in the past 10 years.⁵

THC Testing Before Harvest

Hemp has to test at or below 0.3% THC on a dry weight basis, and in Indiana only OISC inspectors can collect the official sample. You cannot test your own crop for compliance.

You must request an official growing-season sample in writing at least 30 calendar days before your expected harvest, and the field has to be within 30 days of harvest when the inspector arrives. The inspector contacts you ahead of time so you can be present. Testing happens at the OISC laboratory. You can monitor THC during the season at a laboratory acceptable to the state seed commissioner, but those results do not replace the official pre-harvest sample.⁴ Miss the request window and harvest without an official test, and you are in violation.

Federal rules give a buffer between 0.3% and 1.0% total THC. A crop in that range is not automatically a negligent violation if you made reasonable efforts to stay compliant, though it still cannot be sold as hemp and has to be disposed of.⁷ Above 1.0% total THC, you are much more likely to face a negligent or intentional violation finding.

Records and Reporting

License holders must keep records as prescribed by the state seed commissioner. The commissioner can audit those records during normal business hours with at least three days’ notice, covering compliance with the statute, the rules, or your license terms.⁵ Federal law requires land-use information to be kept for at least three calendar years.⁶ Anyone who buys hemp in Indiana has to retain purchase receipts for at least two years.

Any change to a previously reported grow site or production site has to be reported to OISC. Failing to report site changes in decimal GPS format is a rule violation and can trigger penalties.⁴

Separately, licensed producers report planted acreage and their license number to the local USDA Farm Service Agency office, identifying each field or subfield (including greenhouses) and the intended use: fiber, CBD, grain, or seed.⁸ Indiana’s hemp plan requires acreage reports to both the FSA and the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, with GPS location for each production site.⁴ The acreage reporting deadline for hemp is typically July 31, and missing it can affect your eligibility for crop insurance and other USDA programs.

Disposing of a Non-Compliant Crop

A crop that tests above the acceptable THC level cannot be sold and has to be destroyed. USDA authorizes several on-farm methods: plowing under, mulching or composting, disking, bush mowing, deep burial, and burning.⁹

You can try remediation first by shredding the crop into biomass, but it then has to be retested. If it still exceeds 0.3% total THC, it has to be destroyed by one of the approved methods. The producer pays for all resampling, remediation, and disposal costs, and must document the disposal for inspection.⁹ Depending on state plan requirements, documentation may include photos, video, or in-person verification.

Penalties

Indiana treats negligent violations differently from intentional ones.

Negligent Violations

If the state seed commissioner finds you negligently violated the hemp statute, you generally get a chance to correct it. The commissioner sets a reasonable timeframe and may require a corrective action plan. No civil penalty is imposed for a first negligent violation if you comply with the plan.⁵ Three negligent violations within a five-year period, however, make you ineligible to produce hemp for five years, matching the federal rule under 7 CFR 990.29.⁷

Civil Penalties and Revocation

For general violations of license requirements, terms, or rules on growing or handling hemp, the state seed commissioner can revoke the license, refuse to renew it, or impose a civil penalty up to $2,500. The violator also has to reimburse the commissioner for laboratory testing costs related to the violation.¹⁰

Knowing or Intentional Violations

Knowing or intentional violations carry a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per violation and can trigger license revocation. If the commissioner believes a violation was knowing or intentional, the matter is referred to the Indiana State Police and the county prosecuting attorney, which can lead to criminal charges.⁵

The November 2026 Federal Change You Need to Plan For

In November 2025, Congress enacted Public Law 119-37, amending the federal definition of hemp. Effective November 12, 2026, hemp will be defined based on total THC concentration rather than delta-9 THC alone.¹¹ Total THC includes all THC variants, including THCA once converted through decarboxylation. Cultivars that passed the old delta-9-only test may fail under the total THC standard, which is particularly important if you grow for CBD extraction.

The law also creates new categories for seeds, intermediate hemp-derived products, and final cannabinoid products. Finished hemp-derived cannabinoid products cannot contain more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container, and synthetically produced cannabinoids are excluded from the definition of hemp entirely.¹¹ If you plan to be in the field in 2026, review your genetics and product plans now against the total THC standard rather than waiting for the deadline.

1
Office of Indiana State Chemist. Indiana Hemp Regulatory Website
2
Indiana State Department of Agriculture. Hemp In Indiana
3
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 15-15-13-7 – Hemp Regulations; Rules; Licenses; License Applications
4
Office of Indiana State Chemist. Indiana Hemp Plan
5
Office of Indiana State Chemist. Indiana Code 15-15-13 – Industrial Hemp
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 7 USC 1639p – State and Tribal Plans
7
eCFR. 7 CFR 990.29 – Violations
8
USDA Farmers.gov. Hemp and Eligibility for USDA Programs
9
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Remediation and Disposal Guidelines for Hemp Growing Facilities
10
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 15-15-13-13 – Penalties; Revocation
11
Congressional Research Service. Change to Federal Definition of Hemp and Implications for Federal Policy