Plant Disease Endangers Massachusetts Marijuana Industry

• Massachusetts marijuana growers are struggling to contain Hop Latent Viroid (HLBd), a plant disease that started on the West Coast and now is damaging the Northeast marijuana industry.
• “Hop Latent Viroid has been an issue in many different cannabis cultivation facilities,” Dr. Riley Kirk, a cannabis research scientist at Real Isolates in Beverly, Massachusetts, told Fox25. The disease can stunt the plant’s growth and alter the plant’s genetic makeup, she explained. The condition also affects cannabinoid and terpene production, affecting the marijuana’s potency and flavor, according to the cannabis news site StratCann.