A FIELD of hemp has been raided by Facebook users who thought they had found wild cannabis.

Police were called after the legal plants had been ripped up and a path trampled through the field.

Angmering landowner Keith Langmead told The Argus: “I’m just annoyed that people keep coming and stealing the crop.

“It’s got no THC in it so they won’t get a high off it.”

THC is the element in cannabis that creates psychoactive effects when smoked.

It is understood people acted after a message was posted on Facebook last weekend.

Mr Langmead said: “The trouble was it got on to Facebook and then everyone got involved.”

He said the police were keeping a constant watch on the field and he hoped the word would spread that the crop was not smokeable.

Officers were called to the field on a farm in Decoy Drive, Angmering, at 8.30pm on Tuesday after reports of intruders.

Three men were arrested on suspicion of theft of a quantity of industrial hemp, which is being grown lawfully under licence in the field.

The three men, one aged 30, from Littlehampton, one aged 18, from Angmering and one aged 47 from Ilchester, Somerset, are currently in custody for interview and further enquiries. Two bags containing hemp were seized.

A Home Office spokeswoman told The Argus the field is licensed to grow hemp.