Drought poses negative impacts to growth and yield of hemp, therefore, hemp has evolved survival mechanisms for abiotic stress. Plant cells will discontinue normal growth rates when exposed to drought stress along with other physiological processes such as photosynthesis. Down regulating certain gene's expressions or transcription factors can assist in this response. For example, photosynthesis–antenna proteins and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the jasmonic acid pathway were demonstrated as being down-regulated during drought stress. In a 2018 research article by Gao, they attribute the down regulation to reduced photosynthesis in the plant. Up regulating genes can also occur, such as transcriptional factors from the NAC gene family, which were demonstrated to be over expressed in response to drought treatments, possibly contributing to tolerance. Numerous regulation genes involved in the biosynthesis of abscisic acid (ABA), a plant hormone linked to stress response, are over expressed during times of drought stress. Some of these genes are from the PP2C and SnPK gene families, linked to drought tolerance because of their intrinsic roles of ABA signaling. ABA signaling, controlled by changes in ABA metabolic pathways, assist in stomata closure and changes in the photosynthesis processes in hemp plants to combat water loss during drought stress.
Another stress hormone, auxin, may be important in drought tolerance by means of the gene GH3. A hemp GH3 homolog gene has been shown to increase drought resistance in rice by decreasing expression of Indole-3-Acetic Acid (IAA), which decreases photosynthesis and cell growth.