Hemp industry expected to blossom under new Farm Bill
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The U.S. hemp industry is expecting business to expand and investors to beckon after Congress on Wednesday passed farm legislation that included a provision to legalize and regulate the plant under the Department of Agriculture.
"This is a monumental bill for hemp farming," said Lauren Stansbury of the Hemp Industries Association.
The bill, awaiting President Trump's signature, opens the door to state-by-state regulation, removes hemp, which is part of the cannabis plant family, from the federal enforcement of outlaw drugs and gives hemp farmers access to banking, crop insurance and federal grants, experts said.
That could open the industry, which produces therapeutic cannabidiol (CBD), fabric, rope and even ethanol, to a wave of investment.
"This is a cultural shift," said Bomi Joseph, creator of CBD product ImmunAG. "CBD is going to explode. I think the market is going to triple in size."
Cannabidiol has been touted as an elixir that can do everything from cure cancer to tame menstrual cramps, but so far the U.S. Food and Drug administration has only approved a specific formulation of CBD to treat seizures associated with rare forms of epilepsy.
The bill "puts forth a whole-plant definition of hemp including extracts," said Stansbury of the Hemp Industries Association. "We’re not just talking stalk or flower. Any product derived from hemp is a legal consumer product."
But for now at least the FDA could stand in the way.
It states that CBD products can't be sold as dietary supplements and that those making medical claims are illegal without its approval. However, the FDA aims its most serious enforcement efforts at products "marketed for serious or life threatening diseases," according to a statement.
And the dietary supplement exclusion could be revisited, the administration has stated. "The FDA could allow it to be regulated as food and dietary supplements," said Shawn Hauser of the Colorado law firm Vicente Sederberg, which worked on the hemp legislation.
Under the bill, CBD products derived from hemp and containing 0.3 percent or less of the high-inducing cannabinoid THC will be considered legitimate.
"It would no longer be controlled under the DEA's purview," said U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman Mary Brandenberger.
Cannabis market data firm New Frontier recently projected that the American CBD market could reach $2.3 billion in revenues by 2022. Hemp-derived CBD (it can also come from other forms of cannabis) was expected to be worth more than half that total.
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I think I might give up NT in order to grow hemp. Why not?
True story.
My maternal grandfather always mentioned the superiority of hemp ropes he learned to use on a merchant marine vessel during his escape from Russia to South America during his journey back to Philly. Then after a couple trips across the US on an Indian Motorcycle into the US Navy and some more nonsense in Cuba...
I hope I can write a novel before I pass.
Well why not grow it? After all, it was good enuf for George Washington:
Yes, George Washington did grow hemp...
They used to sell hemp rope in my grandfather's hardware store. My dad still has a nice long piece of it and he still uses it like it was new.
as long as it isn't allowed to dry out , and is appropriately oiled now and again , it should last for years , but it needs to be a plant based oil , not petroleum based. I still have some my grandfathers used back in the north east .
Because you love your flock too much to leave us??
Absolutely why not. Growing hemp would be a godsend to farmers, especially those who are losing their tobacco farms because of the decrease of smoking. It grows like a weed, is disease and bug resistant, very hard to kill, and can grow in extreme climates. I'm familiar with the fabric that can be produced from it. It is coarser than most materials but it was used to make heavy bags that are stronger than burlap - which I know because that was my father's business. I cannot fathom the cruelty of governments in restricting the medicinal uses derived from hemp.
The problem is the Neanderthal thinking of "Big Government Republicans"-- those who want to increase the size of the federal government by increasing its role in regulating morality-- Big Government Republicans who are trying to limit the power of the states to legislate what their citizens want!
From restricting a women's right to decide what to do with her own body (for example, about an unwanted pregnancy) to restricting the rights of states who citizens want to legalize Marijuana.
"The problem is the Neanderthal thinking of "Big Government Republicans"--"
So when did Obama push for legalizing pot laws? Did I miss that? Or when did Hillary make that part of her campaign platform? I think you're confusing all Republicans together with the establishment Democrats. There are lots of people on conservative and liberal sides that want to see pot and its derivatives legal once and for all.
Cough, cough,
The Trump administration, under Jeff Sessions, undid the Obama rollback of marijuana regulations.
Really? Color me, shocked !
And Sessions is gone now. Plus he was one of those establishment types I was talking about. Obama could've just taken pot off the federal drug schedule if he'd been serious about it.
Obama could have done it but then he would have had the Republican Congress overrule it. An Executive Order is the weakest form of law because it prevents the POTUS from becoming a dictator.
Republicans by themselves wouldn't have had the votes to overturn it and there are some like Rand Paul who actually favor legalization. You'll just have to admit there are plenty of Democrats that don't have the guts to make it legal federally.
It was just one of the issues that keeps me from voting for Republicans. The Establishment Republicans and so called conservatives have steadfastly refused to support true Constitutionalism by repealing these inane laws.
Glad there is a step forward in the right direction
No, a woman is not free to get a late term abortion unless it's out of medical necessity. Most states have laws prohibiting elective late term abortions.
Exactly what Stevens says in his opinion in Gonzales v. Raich. Nope, never mind, he actually said that the commerce clause allows the feds to do whatever the hell they want.
I think I might give up NT in order to grow hemp. Why not?
Well, as they might say on Wall St-- one word: "moat".
(What is the chance you can achieve enough "economy of scale" to compete with the large corporations?).
(What is the chance you can achieve enough "economy of scale" to compete with the large corporations?).
And while some people feel that legalization would hurt tobacco and/or alcohol corporations-- but those YUGE corporations don't have to worry as they will simply buy up the Cannabis companies.
For example:
Which Big Consumer Product Companies Really Are Entering the Cannabis Industry ?
After much waiting and monitoring, we are seeing some mainstream companies publicly dive in. Constellation’s $3.8 billion investment in Canopy Growth is essentially shouting from the rooftops that alcohol companies were officially getting into the cannabis mix. MolsonCoors, Heineken and -- if rumors are true -- soon Diageo are making key investments and alliances to carve out their place within the cannabis industry. Instead of being stigmatized for entering this space, alcohol companies not carving out their place in cannabis are quickly being viewed as behind the curve, not forward-looking or ripe to be disrupted.
Good point!
"Craft Marijuana"...!!!
National Beer Sales & Production Data - Brewers Association
Craft Beer's Days of Explosive Growth Are Over | Fortune
2017 Craft Brewing Growth Statistics Released by the Brewers ...
People Aren't Super Excited About Beer Right Now
Off-Premise Craft Beer Sales Grew 6 Percent in 2017 | Brewbound.com
IRI Worldwide: Craft Beer Sales Up Narrowly Through Mid-Year ...
The craft beer industry's buzz is wearing off - The Washington Post
OK I confess.. I am a beer snob. But we have some amazing breweries all over Long Island.
Well, I do feel I'm deteriorating a bit.
Takes government forever to restore freedom once it strips it from us for no good reason. We should all be ashamed that we allow them to get away with this type of restrictions on our freedom.
It was conservatives who regulated and banned weed. 1970 Controlled Substances Act.
The 1970 CSA was enacted by the 91st US Congress. Both chambers were held by a Democrat majority.
Further, the 1970 CSA includes more than just marijuana:
The House Member who sponsored it also supported censorship. He tried to get the radio station manager who played a John Lennon song arrested for dropping the F-bomb.
Please don't try to move the goal posts, epistte. It doesn't matter who sponsored it or what s/he supported . In comment 2.1.1 I directly replied to your comment 2.1 where you accused all congressional conservatives of "banning weed" via the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. I proved that the 1970 CSA included far more than weed.
I further proved that Democrats controlled both congressional chambers in 1970.
There's no way that you can blame conservatives for the law that majority Democrats enacted.
FDR and Democrats made Marijuana illegal. Republican Establishment and Conservative are complicit for continuing this attack on liberty
“On August 2, 1937 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, the first federal marijuana law, which prohibited the substance beginning in October of that year (yes, that’s how they spelled marijuana back then). It effectively banned the possession of pot by requiring users to obtain a tax stamp, which they couldn’t buy without providing details about the amount and location of their marijuana, thereby incriminating themselves in the process.
While the law was overturned by the Supreme Court and was officially repealed by Congress in 1970, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act simultaneously — thus ensuring that marijuana remained illegal. The prohibition continues to this day at the federal level, though a growing numbers of states have chosen to legalize marijuana for medical or recreational uses.
The primary case made against marijuana by the federal government was that its use had become “a national menace” in the words of Harry Anslinger, the commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (DEA predecessor)
Aside from raising concerns about the effects of marijuana, Anslinger stoked cultural fears by citing several instances of minorities using the drug before committing crimes, leading some to allege that racial bias played a role in its prohibition. Increasing numbers of Mexicans were immigrating to the U.S., and the use of marijuana was common among those who worked on farms in the southwest and western parts of the country. Additionally, a concentrated type of marijuana known as hashish was used by some immigrants from the Middle East and surrounding regions.”
The SCOTUS overruled FDR.
The parties weren't the same as they are now. Southern Democrats might have been liberal economically but they were social conservatives. The Republicans were actually pragmatic conservatives instead of Neo-Conservatives or TEAparty members. Hillary would have been a Republican if she were a politician in the 1940s. Only the northern Democrats were liberal/progressive.
Moving the goal posts again? 1970 was a mere 48 years ago, but I suppose that's ancient history for some people.
The Nixon administration was the start of the Southern Strategy to flip the socially conservative southern Democrats who still supported racism to the GOP. The south flipped from blue to red over the next 25 years.
I see that you're still trying to move the goal posts away from my original posts. Sorry, that doesn't work with me. Bye.
Well....I don't generally describe it that way, but that's what it is.
I guess we didn't learn our lesson from prohibition.
Meh, the only crimes I see people smoking large quantities of weed are raiding the dorritos aisle at the local 7-11.
Just out of curiosity, Larry, do you personally think weed should be legal?
I’ve stated several times that as a minarchist libertarian I oppose all drug laws
Ground was broken 3 years ago in southeast Colorado for a privately owned $1 billion hemp processing facility that is now nearing completion. According to a principal that I spoke to, some of the reasons the site was selected was because of it's proximity to geographical center of the US, it was fed by rail from the midwest, and the town gave the company 200 acres to build the facility upon. This facility has the capacity to process all the potential hemp grown in the US starting in the summer of 2019.
It's an amazing under valued resource that's far healthier for our planet than other things like cotton or corn that strip the land of nutrients. Hemp can be grown in "no-till" conditions since it doesn't strip all the nutrients and can actually achieve a natural balance and be grown on the same plot of land in perpetuity instead of needing to be rotated like most crops.
It is stupid not to allow this to be grown. Higher yield, quicker turnover. Would save the forests. Hemp can be used for almost everything. Clothing, paper, rope, biofuel, even carpet/rugs and for nutrition. It can even be used in home construction.
Not sure how comfortable that would be. Especially in the summer when I go commando most of the time... Don't think it would be all that comfortable on my junk..
Tmi...TMI... hahaha
Funny thing is, I have seen hemp socks that are made with cotton added.
A supposed benefit though,
(For 4.1 )
I wash regularly...ENDER.. LOL
I noticed above that people had strayed from the meat of the article, hemp, so I hope I am afforded the same latitude.
Before two months ago, I had not tried weed since I was in high school...1984-ish. Had to roll your own, and being rookies, it was more of a joke than actually getting high. After three times, I decided it simply was not for me.
Couple months ago I was talking to my neighbor about my arthritis and she suggested that I try a cbd tincture. I was surprised, it actually did help. So, I decided to step it up a notch and went with her to the local weed store, (it's legal for recreational use here in WA.). Couple of things surprised me..
1) The place was incredibly clean, I mean, doctors office clean.
2) No matter who walks in the door, they check the ID.
3) The people behind the counter will only help one customer at a time, if you are not being served, they ask you to stay back 3 feet from the counter, (but you are welcome to look at their stock in the books they have).
4) Everything is cash based. No checks. No debit cards. Since most banks are FDIC, they cannot accept money that came from the sale of a substance the government says is illegal... No problem, they have ATM machines in the store.
I am not a smoker, never have been, but they have "edibles", which is fine. All ratios are 1:1. 1mg THC to 1mg CBD. So I bought a package of salted caramels. 10 for $45.00. Each "candy", is 10mg. And since I was curious...a package of 10 joints, (they pre-roll them.....no shit! See pics at the bottom), even though I am not a smoker....I figured, what the heck.
So we get back in her car and I open the caramels....and I could not for the life of me, open the damn package. They don't have a tear line, they aren't perforated. The manufacturer wants to make sure that kids are NOT going to accidentally open one and eat one. Anyway... She had a pair of scissors in the glove box so I ate one. She told me to eat half, but....what the heck. An hour later? Nothing.... So I ate half of another one.. Hour later? Absolutely NO arthritis pain at all. None. First time in years I have felt that good. But I admit, 15mg of thc was probably a little over the top. Doing complex math was pretty much out of the question for the rest of the day BUT, I slept like a baby and completely pain free.
As far as hemp goes? Why it's even an issue is beyond me.
So a picture.. Sorry for the quality...my phone camera has been acting odd of late.
Package of caramels, with one on the side, and a package of joints.
Seriously, weed needs to be legal nation wide. It really helps with chronic, (HA!) pain issues. Some added bonuses? I have re-acquainted myself with reggae music and The Wall has an all new meaning for me.
I was that guy in High School who stapled the ends....
.... too much shake, better saved for the bong.
I was the guy that could roll a 1 paper zigzag while driving. In the early 70's a parked car filled with friends was a big red flag for the local LEO's at a high school rated in the top 3 nationally for availability. Back then you could get busted for possessing drug paraphernalia by having rolling papers, unless you had a tin of tobacco too, Bugle Boy. No pipes allowed in my car and a dump hatch under the carpet behind the shifter. My weakness was Columbian and Thai stick. Columbian came from the local guidos and the Thai stick from others older brothers returning from the far east. My niece is married to the son of the student narc me and my friends outed in high school in '73. Makes the rare family get-togethers a little awkward. Funny how shit turns out later.