NASDA calls for uniform industry standards for testing industrial hemp

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) approved an action item urging development of uniform standards for hemp testing and sampling at its annual meeting. NASDA members are calling for a working group of states to identify these standards for which state departments of agriculture will administer industrial hemp programs.

NASDA considered the question of uniform standards for hemp regulators at its annual meeting on September 11th in Hartford, CT. Agriculture department officials we spoke with indicated that hemp was significant topic of discussion and that a number of state agriculture heads shared concerns regarding a lack of uniformity in how hemp testing was being handled from state to state.

NASDA supports the development of uniform industry standards including the establishment of consistent procedures for states that require testing, for field sampling, sample preparation, and the testing of industrial hemp for THC by the gas chromatography method. NASDA encourages state adoption of uniform industry standards to avoid a patchwork of testing and grading criteria throughout the states. NASDA Members call for a working group of states to identify these standards for which state departments of agriculture will administer industrial hemp programs under.

To view a copy of the NASDA hemp action item, click here.

Farmers want to see a pardon on hemp

On a recent spring evening, Joe Swanson stood in his field of winter wheat, envisioning a different scene across the Kansas landscape.

A green plant with five-pointed leaves, and acres of it.

“I’m fired up about hemp,” the 72-year-old Rice County, Kansas, farmer said. “I can’t say enough good about it.”

Swanson sees industrial hemp breathing new life into the struggling farm economy. Hemp could be more revenue-yielding than wheat and milo. It uses less water than corn. It makes a variety of products, including biodegradable plastic and paper.

Moreover, processing plants would create jobs for many Midwestern towns, he said.

“I think hemp can offer a whole new industrial revolution for communities,” Swanson said.

However, the potential hemp industry is toeing a legality line. While it won’t get anyone high, the crop’s expansion suffers from association with its illicit cannabis cousin.

The 2014 farm bill included a provision allowing states, through research institutions and departments of agriculture, to grow industrial hemp. About three-quarters of U.S. states have enacted such laws, but there are still barriers.

Industrial hemp falls under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which still considers the crop as the equivalent of marijuana, which classifies it as an illegal substance.

Despite a handful of bills the past five years to begin developing the prospective multimillion-dollar industry in the state, Kansas is one of 16 states that hasn’t passed hemp legislation.

But Swanson, who sees hemp boosting the farm’s profitability for his daughter and son-in-law—the farm’s sixth generation—is optimistic that soon-to-be-introduced federal legislation will remove the final roadblocks that have put the fledgling cash crop at a stalemate.

“This could be a very positive thing for our country,” Swanson said. “Kansas legislation has been very slow in dragging their feet but hopefully the federal proposal will help us get this off and going. We sure need it.”

A country built on hemp

It’s sometimes forgotten how deeply rooted hemp once was in the U.S. agricultural economy.

Before the drug prohibition, hemp was a prominent part of everyday lives. It was used to make a variety of items, including clothing, rope and sails. The Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper. Even the first American flag, reported to be made by Betsy Ross, was crafted from hemp fiber.

Henry Ford experimented with hemp to build car bodies.

But the hemp industry began to go downhill after that. Hemp was doomed by the “Marihuana Tax Act of 1937,” which defined hemp as a narcotic drug, according to the Congressional Research Service. Farmers growing hemp were required to have federal registration and a special tax stamp, effectively limiting further production.

During World War II, the U.S. Department of Agriculture campaigned with “Hemp for Victory” and allowed farmers to grow it with a permit.

Yet, by 1958, there were no U.S. hemp fields. Rigid restrictions in the Controlled Substances Act brought the industry to a halt, turning the United States into one of the world’s largest importers of hemp.

Current U.S. hemp sales total more than $600 million, according to the congressional report. That figure is based on imported hemp, primarily from Canada.

Changing the landscape

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY, wants to make hemp a viable commodity again.

McConnell announced in late March he would introduce the Hemp Farming Act of 2018, which will legalize hemp as an agricultural commodity and remove it from the list of controlled substances.

Besides breaking down federal barriers, his legislation builds upon the success of hemp pilot programs in states like Kentucky by allowing the states to be the primary regulators of hemp if the U.S. Department of Agriculture approves their implementation plan. It also would give hemp researchers the chance to apply for competitive USDA grants allowing them “to continue their impressive work with the support of federal research dollars.”

“Hemp has played a foundational role in Kentucky’s agricultural heritage, and I believe that it can be an important part of our future,” McConnell said in a statement issued by his office.

During a press conference, McConnell added he could see hemp surpassing tobacco in Kentucky, where health hazards of smoking have caused a drop in production.

“The goal of this new bill, should it become law, is to simply remove the roadblocks altogether,” McConnell said. “It would encourage innovation and development and support to domestic production of hemp.”

Kentucky has paved the way, with the state’s agriculture division approving more than 12,000 acres for hemp production and research in 2018. Colorado comes in second in acreage, followed by North Dakota. Last year, 19 states had pilot programs or research plots, which totaled more than 25,000 acres.

But a bulk of Farm Belt states haven’t addressed hemp. Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Iowa have introduced bills at their state capitals, said Eric Steenstra, president of Vote Hemp, a nonprofit founded in 2000 as a way to advocate for a free market for industrial hemp.

“Farmers are always looking for new crops and ways to diversify,” Steenstra said. “It is kind of crazy that American companies are importing hemp from Canada, China, Europe—wherever.”

If McConnell is successful in getting the new hemp legislation into the next farm bill, farmers could see a new environment, Steenstra said. At present, most banks won’t loan money for hemp production and the USDA hasn’t funded a single hemp research project.

“There also is no crop insurance available,” he said. “Hemp isn’t classified as a specialty crop. There are things that could help get the industry going and build from that.”

Those states that haven’t implemented anything are falling behind, he added. He noted a California company broke ground in Kentucky in mid-March on a $30 million hemp processing facility that will add about 140 jobs.

A move toward hemp

In Kansas, Swanson’s dream is making some progress.

Rep. Willie Dove, R-Bonner Springs, introduced legislation the past few years to make hemp the state’s newest commodity. However, different bill, which came out of the Senate, passed the Kansas House in March.

On April 7, the Senate voted to concur with the House amendments to the bill, which now takes the legislation to Gov. Jeff Colyer’s desk.

If signed, the Kansas Department of Agriculture could establish a pilot program in Russell County and other counties determined by the agency, said Dove, the Legislature’s leading hemp advocate.

It’s a “small step” in the right direction, but not the big one Dove wants to see.

“They are way ahead of us—all the other states,” Dove said, adding he felt like he has been fighting the former Brownback administration to get any hemp legislation passed. “Kansas doesn’t seem to be on the same page. Hopefully, with the new administration, we can go much further with this.”

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and law enforcement agencies have spoken in opposition, saying legalizing industrial hemp would make drug laws difficult to enforce.

However, Dove stressed industrial hemp is not marijuana.

While both plants look similar and belong to the same species, they are genetically different, which is noted in the current farm bill. The major difference in is the level of THC, the psychoactive compound in cannabis. Industrial hemp contains less than 0.3 percent THC and does not produce a high. Marijuana, smoked for its hallucinogenic and medical properties, contains 10 to 100 times that amount.

“Everyone thinks automatically that hemp is marijuana,” said Rock Gagnebin, a Reno County cattle producer and business owner. “You ever hear the saying ‘Go smoke some rope’?”

But the economic possibilities for rural Kansas are endless, Gagnebin said. Hemp can be made into healthcare products, concrete, particle board and insulation, to name a few items.

“I can see Kansas being the epicenter of the hemp world,” he said. “It makes a good crop, it’s hardy and it doesn’t take much water. If you’re a farmer, I don’t see how you couldn’t be for it.”

A boon for farmers

Reid Shrauner, a fourth-generation Morton County, Kansas, farmer who farms with his father, Scott, in both Kansas and Oklahoma, calls industrial hemp a viable option to water-intensive corn.

His family’s livelihood is dependent on irrigated farming that was put in place by his grandfather and father. But the Ogallala Aquifer is declining.

Shrauner recently calculated the profit for irrigated grain sorghum, but noted with the current trade issues with China, he didn’t want to take that risk. He has been outspoken about hemp, flying with a neighbor to Topeka last year to show support for the crop.

“Irrigators are in the unique situation of being in control of a nonrenewable resource,” he said, adding he would use hemp as one of the crops in his rotation.

Swanson sees those benefits, too. And for young farmers getting their start on the farm amid a stagnant economy, it also could be a profitable answer.

“If we can bring in hemp and these other things, good things are in the future,” he said. “The reason we are excited about industrial hemp is it will give us another diverse crop to put into our no-till system.”

Visit our Kansas hemp page to learn more about hemp policy in Kansas.

Content retrieved from: http://www.hpj.com/bickel/farmers-want-to-see-a-pardon-on-hemp/article_f660e9c0-39df-11e8-a84d-ef8b8bee976b.html.

Wyden: Legalizing Hemp A Big Opportunity For Oregon

Oregon’s Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley are teaming up with two unlikely allies — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul — on a piece of legislation. The Democrats and Republicans don’t often agree, but they’re working together to push the Hemp Legalization Act of 2018, to legalize and clearly define hemp as an agricultural commodity and remove it from the list of controlled substances.

That legislation has been included in the latest version of the Senate’s Farm Bill. Wyden sat down with OPB “Weekend Edition” host John Notarianni to discuss the bill. He said hemp is still a controlled substance, despite lacking the psychoactive properties of marijuana.

“If somebody tried to smoke hemp, the only thing they’d be doing is wasting their lighter fluid,” Wyden said.

He believes legalizing hemp could be a big opportunity for job growth in Oregon. “We have several hundred farmers who are interested in this,” he said.

It’s not only Oregon farmers interested in growing and selling hemp. Farmers in Kentucky latched onto the opportunity as well.

“All of a sudden we had a bipartisan coalition, with two states with lots of farmers who are really interested in this,” Wyden said.

While Wyden is optimistic the Farm Bill will pass the Senate, he’s worried that a competing version of the bill that passed the House this week could be difficult to reconcile.

“I am very troubled by the House provisions that really assault the hunger programs in America,” Wyden said. “The House really goes on a bender in terms of opposing the important hunger programs. That will be our big challenge.”

Visit our Oregon hemp page for more info on hemp in Oregon.

Content retrieved from: https://www.opb.org/news/article/hemp-legal-oregon-farm-bill/.

Marijuana Growers Turning to Hemp as CBD Extract Explodes

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — A glut of legal marijuana is driving Oregon pot prices to rock-bottom levels, prompting some nervous growers to start pivoting to another type of cannabis to make ends meet — one that doesn’t come with a high.

Applications for state licenses to grow hemp — marijuana’s non-intoxicating cousin — have increased more than twentyfold since 2015, making Oregon No. 2 behind Colorado among the 19 states with active hemp cultivation. The rapidly evolving market comes amid skyrocketing demand for a hemp-derived extract called cannabidiol, or CBD, seen by many as a health aid.

In its purified distilled form, CBD oil commands thousands of dollars per kilogram, and farmers can make more than $100,000 an acre growing hemp plants to produce it. That distillate can also be converted into a crystallized form or powder.

“Word on the street is everybody thinks hemp’s the new gold rush,” Jerrad McCord said, who grows marijuana in southern Oregon and just added 12 acres (5 hectares) of hemp. “This is a business. You’ve got to adapt, and you’ve got to be a problem-solver.”

It’s a problem few predicted when Oregon voters opened the door to legal marijuana four years ago.

The state’s climate is perfect for growing marijuana, and growers produced bumper crops. Under state law, none can leave Oregon. That, coupled with a decision to not cap the number of licenses for growers, has created a surplus.

Oregon’s inventory of marijuana is staggering for a state its size. There are nearly 1 million pounds (450,000 kilograms) of usable flower in the system, and an additional 350,000 pounds (159,000 kilograms) of marijuana extracts, edibles and tinctures.

“Usable flower” refers to the dried marijuana flower — or bud — that is most commonly associated with marijuana consumption.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which regulates the industry, says some of the inventory of flower goes into extracts, oils and tinctures — which have increased in popularity — but the agency can’t say how much. A comprehensive market study is underway.

Yet the retail price for a gram of pot has fallen about 50 percent since 2015, from $14 to $7, according to a report by the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis. Growers and retailers alike have felt the sting.

“Now we’re starting to look at drastic means, like destroying product. At some point, there’s no more storage for it,” Trey Willison said, who switched his operation from marijuana to hemp this season. “Whoever would have thought we’d get to the point of destroying pounds of marijuana?”

That stark prospect is driving more of Oregon’s marijuana entrepreneurs toward hemp, a crop that already has a foothold in states like Colorado and Kentucky and a lot of buzz in the cannabis industry. In Oregon, the number of hemp licenses increased from 12 in 2015 to 353 as of last week.

Colorado and Washington were the first states to broadly legalize marijuana. Both have seen price drops for marijuana but not as significant as Oregon.

Like marijuana, the hemp plant is a cannabis plant, but it contains less than 0.3 percent of THC, the compound that gives pot its high. Growing industrial hemp is legal under federal law, and the plant can be sold for use in things like fabric, food, seed and building materials.

But the increasing focus in Oregon is the gold-colored CBD oil that has soared in popularity among cannabis connoisseurs and is rapidly going mainstream. At least 50 percent of hemp nationwide is being grown for CBD extraction, and Oregon is riding the crest of that wave, Eric Steenstra said, president of Vote Hemp, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for pro-hemp legislation.

“There are a lot of growers who already have experience growing cannabis, and when you’re growing for CBD, there are a lot of the same techniques that you use for growing marijuana,” he said. “Oregon is definitely a hotbed of activity around this.”

CBD is popping up in everything from cosmetics to chocolate bars to bottled water to pet treats. One Los Angeles bar sells drinks containing the oil, massage therapists use creams containing CBD and juice bars offer the stuff in smoothies. Dozens of online sites sell endless iterations of CBD oils, tinctures, capsules, transdermal patches, infused chocolates and creams with no oversight.

Proponents say CBD offers a plethora of health benefits, from relieving pain to taming anxiety. Scientists caution, however, that there have been very few comprehensive clinical studies of how CBD affects humans — mostly because the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration still considers cannabidiol extract off-limits, and the government requires special dispensation to study it.

Pre-clinical studies have shown promise for treatment of chronic pain, neuro-inflammation, anxiety, addiction and anti-psychotic effects in animals, mostly rodents, Ziva Cooper said, an associate professor of clinical neurobiology at Columbia University who focuses her research on the therapeutic potential of cannabis and cannabinoids.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration next month could approve the first drug derived from CBD. It’s used to treat forms of epilepsy.

Christina Sasser, co-founder of Vital Leaf, isn’t waiting for government action to market CBD products in stores and online. She sells about 500 bottles of Oregon-sourced CBD oil a month and ships only to customers living in states with state-run hemp pilot programs, to better avoid the possibility of legal trouble.

“Everybody in the CBD world has recognized the risks involved, and I would say the vast majority of us really believe in the power of the plant and are willing to operate in this, sort of, gray area,” she said.

Willison was selling marijuana clones to pot startups when he realized last spring he was selling way more clones than Oregon’s market could support. The two-story building where he grew 200 pounds of weed a month sits nearly empty, and a greenhouse built to expand his pot business is packed with hemp plants instead.

He breeds hemp plants genetically selected for their strong CBD concentration, harvests the seeds and extracts CBD from the remaining plants that can fetch up to $13,000 per kilogram. His future looks bright again.

“The (marijuana) market is stuck within the borders of Oregon — it’s locked within the state,” he said, as he took a break from collecting tiny grains of pollen from his plants. “But hemp is an international commodity now.”

Content from: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/oregon/articles/2018-05-14/marijuana-growers-diversify-with-hemp-amid-cbd-boom.

USDA Organic Certification for Hemp Crops

August 23, 2016 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued instructions on organic certification of industrial hemp production outlining its policy regarding organic certification of hemp crops under the National Organic Program (NOP). This instruction clarifies USDA policy regarding the organic certification of industrial hemp production by certifying agents accredited by the USDA NOP. This instruction applies to all NOP-accredited certifying agents, and replaces the February 2016 version of NOP 2040. This instruction has not yet been updated following passage of the 2018 Farm Bill but an update is expected.

USDA National Organic Program – 2040 Hemp Instruction

Hemp manufacturing facility planned for Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood

CLEVELAND, Ohio – A new company plans to open a manufacturing facility next June that would make hemp products – building materials, carpet and insulation, disposable straws and utensils, clothing and even CBD oil.

North Coast Natural Solutions will open the project in three phases, with the first one at 12735 Kirby Ave. — across the street from the former industrial site of National Acme — offering around 650 jobs, said Ty Williams, CEO of Level 5 Global Corp., a consulting and financial firm in Washington.

Williams said wages will start at $17 an hour – with benefits such as health insurance, on-site child care for all three shifts and paid training.

The project will initially use hemp plants grown in Kentucky and upstate New York. It will arrive in Cleveland in bundles or balls, looking similar to bales of hay.

Williams grew up in the Cleveland area and is excited about revitalization in the Glenville neighborhood, which suffers from low wages, and high unemployment and incarceration rates, he said Thursday afternoon during a meeting with the cleveland.com/Plain Dealer editorial board.

“If we’re going to build it in their neighborhood, we have to make sure these people have an opportunity to get a job there,” he said.

Industrial hemp and marijuana are different varieties of the cannabis plant. The federal Farm Act of 2014 defines industrial hemp as containing 0.3 percent or less THC, a psychoactive component of the plant. People who grow industrial hemp use a cannabis plant that doesn’t have the buds or flowers present in marijuana.

Williams is confident that the plant’s activities will be legal in Ohio, citing recent actions and legislation at the federal level and dismissing recent state guidance that CBD is still illegal in Ohio. He said the plant wouldn’t initially manufacture CBD oil. That will come in a later phase, he said.

Support

The Revs. E. Theophilus Caviness of Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church in Glenville and the Rev. Aaron Phillips of the Cleveland Clergy Coalition both described the project as a gift from God.

“This is almost unbelievable for us to have this opportunity for this to impact the community,” Caviness said.

Phillips said he’s prepared to travel to Columbus if the state objects to the products being manufactured.

Cleveland City Councilman Mike Polensek is also on board. His ward includes part of Glenville.

He described the area as “totally devastated. It’s over 200 acres of industrial land that for the most part has been abandoned. For the last 5 years I have been lobbying with the state, the county, the city for revitalization of this area.”

He hopes the project will inspire development of other buildings in the area.

Content retrieved from: https://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2018/09/hemp_manufacturing_facility_pl.html.

IL farmer says Industrial Hemp Bill could boost economy

ILLINOIS (KFVS) – Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed a bill on Saturday legalizing the growth of industrial hemp by Illinois farmers.

One southern Illinois farmer says it comes at a time when the agricultural economy could use a boost.

“When you hurt us, you hurt the whole economy,” said Farmer Jim Hood. “We are not getting rich, we are just surviving right now and that’s not a very good place to be.”

Hood says right now is a tough time financially the industry.

“Corn right now is terrible,” he said. “So it’s at a level were you can’t make, and we need something to spur us on a little bit.”

Governor Rauner says roughly 38 states including Missouri and Kentucky have allowed or are considering allowing cultivation of the same crop.

“Our farmers should have this option as well,” Rauner said. “This new state licensure program begins that process.”

Hood says having another crop diversifies the options for making money.

“I’m happy that we can have another crop in there, that would be awesome, anything to boost grain price of grain back up where it should be, Hood said. “This makes life easier on everybody.”

Hood believes this bill could grow the economy, but Marc Lamczyk with University of Illinois Extension says he does not see an advantage right now.

“We’re going to have to have some more data and some more research, and as of right now, I don’t see it as a big economic boom to the farm economy of southern Illinois,” Lamczyk said. “It’s a lot of variables in here that we just don’t know at this time.”

Unknown variables like acres of land, fertility requirements, insecticides, equipment, or permits. However, Lamczyk says does see the silverlining in the new legislation.

“Getting other farmers to think about alternative crops that maybe could help them increase their bottom line, increase their cash flows,” said Lamczyk. “Provide another source of income at different times of the year.”

Farmers like Hood are not completely familiar with the production process, but he says he’s willing to learn. “I don’t know anything about it, but I’m willing to learn,” Hood said.

Rauner’s office says, the Industrial Hemp Act, effective immediately creates a state licensure program through the Department of Agriculture that enables those who desire to grow the crop to do so.

The state Department of Agriculture shall establish rules for THC-level testing of industrial hemp crops.

Content retrieved from: http://www.kfvs12.com/story/38971700/il-farmer-says-industrial-hemp-bill-could-boost-economy/.

Virginia’s first hemp crop in decades could signal new opportunity

RICHMOND — Marty Phipps started a business this year selling an innovative type of bedding for horses and small animals — a shredded substance that absorbs liquids, resists microbes and cuts down on smell.

But because the product is made with hemp, which is the same plant species as marijuana and is tightly controlled by the government, Phipps has to import it from Europe. He figures his costs are double what they would be if hemp were an ordinary crop grown locally.

Virginia has joined a nationwide movement to change that equation. This year, for the first time in about 70 years, a group of Virginia farmers harvested a small crop of hemp. It was permitted strictly for research, but a growing chorus — including politicians on the left and right — is pushing to cash in on a versatile crop that can be put to thousands of commercial uses and bring back lost jobs.

“It’s pretty ridiculous, actually,” that it’s taken this long, said Del. Joseph R. Yost, a Republican from Blacksburg who sponsored a bill in last year’s General Assembly to set up the hemp research program. “I represent a rural area in the southwest, and it’s viewed as possibly something that could help replace the tobacco industry and manufacturing industry.”

Yost’s bill, and a companion measure on the state Senate side, passed unanimously. Another bill this year endorsed the industrial use of hemp.

Three universities signed up to participate in the research program — Virginia Tech, James Madison and Virginia State — and the University of Virginia has joined for next year.

Each school got seeds, which had to be ordered from European countries and then cleared by federal inspectors. Everyone involved with the research, professors and farmers alike, had to go through federal background checks to handle what is considered a controlled substance. Drug Enforcement Administration agents inspected the state’s seed laboratory.

The teams planted about 37 acres on plots in six counties in June, then harvested it in October. Each university sent the state detailed reports of their findings, but the bottom line was pretty straightforward. “Overall, I think the researchers have a positive outlook on hemp’s potential in Virginia,” said Erin Williams, senior policy analyst for the state agriculture department.

This is not to be confused with marijuana’s potential in Virginia, which is much slimmer. Hemp and marijuana plants look the same, but hemp has far less of the chemical — tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — that gives marijuana users a high. Experts say you would never plant the two together because they would cross-pollinate, and THC levels would plummet in the pot. Plus hemp is cultivated for its seeds; pot growers prefer that the plants put their energy into creating buds, not seeds.

People get confused about the difference. Phipps, for instance, was making a delivery with his father in Loudoun County when a car full of young guys pulled up next to their truck. Seeing the name of the Charlottesville-based business painted on the side — Old Dominion Hemp — “these guys start saluting me and giving high-fives out the window,” Phipps said. “And my Dad’s like, ‘They kind of don’t realize this is animal bedding, do they?’ ”

He would argue that federal law is similarly confused, that hemp does not belong in the same category as marijuana. It took a special provision in the 2014 federal farm bill to permit states to allow academic research of hemp cultivation.

Now two bills are pending in Congress that would open the door to full-fledged agricultural and industrial use.

Those bills have powerful supporters. Both Republican senators from Kentucky, Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell, have urged passage. And Kentucky has been especially aggressive about exploiting the federal research loophole to rapidly expand cultivation, with almost 4,500 acres in production this year.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who represents the Harrisonburg area, has visited JMU’s research site and favors expansion. “Now it is time to move from research to commercial production in the United States,” he said.

But Virginia supporters worry that the bluegrass state is getting a head start.

“We could be way more aggressive the way Kentucky is being aggressive,” said Jason Amatucci, founder and executive director of the Virginia Industrial Hemp Coalition. Colorado is going even further, he said, challenging federal law by cultivating not just hemp but marijuana. “But Virginia does not choose to take that risk,” he said.

Amatucci, 41, learned about hemp while working in his family’s boxwood business, which is based in Charlottesville. He formed the coalition in 2012 after becoming alarmed about the state of agriculture in Virginia.

About 90 percent of Virginia farms are owned by individuals or families, but the average age for farmers is nearly 60, according to state data. As old cash crops such as tobacco continue to decline, owners of small farms need alternatives to thrive and to bring in new generations, Amatucci said.

“We’re just trying to get hemp to be an option,” he said. After all, there’s already a booming market for hemp products. Americans spend more than $580 million annually on hemp-based goods, according to a report last year from the Congressional Research Service. Hemp is used in a variety of products, including fabrics, paper, construction materials, automobile parts and nutritional supplements.

Much of the consumer money goes outside U.S. borders — hemp is an established crop in more than 30 other countries, according to the CRS report.

It wasn’t always this way, of course. Hemp was a crucial product in Colonial-era America, where it was used in sails, rope, clothing, paper and other items. Supporters love to haul out quotes from Thomas Jefferson and other luminaries about the virtues of hemp. It was cultivated in this country through World War II but fell victim to postwar drug enforcement.

The efforts to revive the crop in Virginia are somewhat ironic, said Yost, who aside from being a delegate is the executive director of the Giles County Historical Society.

In 1619, the Virginia colony passed a law requiring farmers to grow hemp.

“Hopefully, it’s making a comeback,” Yost said.

Content retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginias-first-hemp-crop-in-decades-could-signal-new-opportunity/2016/11/26/5dac6458-b195-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html.

Texas farmers see new source of green in legal hemp

Take a trip down the aisle of the nearest Whole Foods Market and it won’t take long to fill a shopping basket with products trumpeting the health and beauty benefits of a commodity Texas farmers are forbidden to grow: hemp.

Lotions, shampoos and shower gels boasting hemp’s essential oils and antioxidants. Shelled seeds, or hemp hearts, promising bigger boosts of protein and omega fatty acids than chia or flax seeds. Boxes of non-dairy hemp milk touting vitamins, minerals and amino acids for healthy hearts and glowing skin. All in packaging that if not displaying the leaves of the long-taboo cannabis plant itself is inevitably splashed with hearty doses of green.

There already are more than 25,000 identified uses for hemp, ranging from health foods and nutraceuticals to clothing, car dashboards, biodegradable plastics and construction materials like “hempcrete.” With the nation’s farm incomes near a 12-year low, it’s no wonder Texas growers want in on a market that’s expected to explode nearly sixfold to $1.65 billion in the U.S. alone by 2021.

“Making money from farming has gotten harder and harder every year and it it’s just another crop that gives me something else to grow,” said Jeff Williams, a West Texas rancher who raises alfalfa, corn and winter cereal grains near Fort Stockton. He envisions not only growing hemp but also investing in a co-op to process it.

“I raise cattle. And you know who makes ultimately the most money year in, year out is the slaughterhouses,” he added. “The producers, the feeders, we’re at the bottom of the totem pole. For me this is such a monumental new industry, and to be able to jump in at the ground floor and not only grow but produce products, to be able to have both sides of that chain, is one of the most exciting things.”

Whether that becomes a reality depends on the Texas Legislature.

Hemp is a variety of the cannabis genus, as is marijuana, but the two plants are distinctly different. Hemp grows tall and spindly, while marijuana is shorter and densely packed. More importantly, hemp has nominal amounts of THC, the psychoactive compound that caused cannabis to become illegal during the Depression era.

Yet while hemp can’t get you high, proponents say many lawmakers in this conservative state are fearful a vote to legalize hemp would be a vote to legalize pot.

Under a provision of the 2014 farm bill, 40 other states already allow farmers to grow hemp as part of pilot programs with universities or state departments of agriculture.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, whose bluegrass state once led the nation in hemp production, got wide bipartisan support for his 2018 farm bill provision to decriminalize hemp.

The measure would remove hemp from the Controlled Substances Act, which in 1970 classified marijuana (and hemp) as a Schedule 1 drug along with heroin, peyote and MDMA (ecstasy). It also would make growers eligible for crop insurance. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, cosponsored the bill.

“It’s Mitch McConnell’s bill but it’s cosponsored by Chuck Schumer as well as three dozen other senators,” Jonathan Miller, a Kentucky lawyer who serves as general counsel for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, told members of the Texas House Agriculture & Livestock Committee during an interim hearing in July. “Can you imagine there’s any other issue than motherhood and apple pie that Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer agree on? But they’re both out there excitedly promoting this, which is a sign of true excitement of the industry.”

Kentucky’s pilot program has already resulted in about $17 million in gross product sales generating $7.5 million for hemp farmers and nearly 100 new full-time jobs. That’s a welcome development for farmers who have seen demand for tobacco steadily decline.

Hemp is not mentioned in the House version of the farm bill.

House Agriculture Committee chairman U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Midland, has said he is fine with it as long as it doesn’t cost crucial votes on a package that includes contentious work requirements for food stamp recipients that make up the bulk of the five-year spending plan.

“When it was over on the House side because of the food stamp issue the bill passed by only two votes,” Miller said. “They didn’t want to bring up the hemp issue because if it lost two votes then it would kill the bill.”

The two chambers will begin hammering out their differences in conference committee when House members return from their August recess.

Even if passed, the federal legislation would not pre-empt state laws.

Some Texas lawmakers already are convinced hemp production should be allowed in Texas. Legalization measures passed out of the state agriculture committee unanimously in both 2015 and 2017. But that’s as far as the effort got.

The Texas GOP’s 2018 platform supports legalization of hemp, and state Democrats’ 2018 platform supports legalization of recreational marijuana.

But so far, the only cannabis provision to make it into law is strictly regulated use of cannabidiol, or CBD, for treatment of intractable epilepsy. The allowance, known as the Compassionate Use Act, is so narrow Texas is not listed as one of the 30 states that allow medical-use marijuana.

“You’ve got this momentum going, but we have to somehow get these legislators beyond this knee-jerk response that hemp is marijuana and it’s going to cause everybody to become dopeheads and stuff,” said Laurance Armour, a Wharton farmer who thinks hemp could be a viable and less thirsty alternative to rice in a region whose sandy soils won’t sustain most row crops.

Rice farmers in the region were without water from 2012 to 2015 as drought conditions led the Lower Colorado River Authority to hold back water for reservoirs in Austin.

Cotton farmers also are interested in hemp as an alternative or rotator crop. According to Shawn Hauser, an attorney with the American Hemp Campaign, the per-acre value of hemp production is around $21,000 from seeds and $12,500 from stalks. As of May 1, the gross per-acre value for cotton and cotton seed was $637.

“Given Texas’ size, agricultural infrastructure, friendly business climate and low cost of resources,” she said, “we could likely be the biggest producer of all the states.”

Coleman Hemphill, chairman of the Texas Hemp Industries Association, said hemp’s advantages include the relatively time it takes to reach harvest, 60 to 90 days compared to about a 160 days for cotton.

“Just that reduced time frame is going to reduce a lot of the liabilities with the crop and the water consumption,” Hemphill said. “It’s not a silver bullet by any means, but it is resilient.”

Armour, the Wharton farmer, had just been at a water use luncheon with state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who he said didn’t know of the difference between hemp and marijuana.

“It’s sort of the misconception that people have who are in a position to do something about legalizing it,” Armour said. “She said, ‘Well, what if you smoke it?’ I said, ‘Well, you’ll get a cough and a sore throat.’”

Asked to comment, Kolkhorst noted that she voted in favor of the 2015 Compassionate Use Act.

“In 2015, Texas enacted the Compassionate Use Act, which I supported to give some doctors the ability to prescribe low-THC cannabis for patients who have epilepsy,” she said. “In terms of expanding the conversation, federal law has traditionally included hemp within the same category as marijuana, but some states are experimenting with industrial hemp farming. I am confident Texas will continue to study this issue and listen to all sides of the debate during the next legislative session.”

Another common objection is that marijuana could end up hidden in hemp fields.

It’s an argument that’s quickly debunked, as cross pollination with hemp weakens marijuana’s THC content.

“The marijuana growers don’t get along with the hemp growers,” said Rick Trojan of Colorado Cultivars, the largest hemp farm in Colorado. “People that are growing high THC outdoors, they run the risk of having pollination and that crop ruined.”

Texas lawmakers largely have been mum about their positions on hemp legalization. Conaway’s office did not respond to an inquiry on whether he’d support hemp, nor did any of the five Texas congress members named to the farm bill conference committee.

Hemp, one of the oldest crops known to mankind, is believed to have originated some 10,000 years ago in Central Asia and arrived in America on board the Mayflower. The British Empire compelled colonists to grow hemp for such maritime uses as hempen ropes and canvas for sails. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper. It was grown by both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Accounts of why cannabis was essentially prohibited in 1937 vary, to include the theory Harry Anslinger, who led the Department of Prohibition, was looking for something new to ban after the prohibition on alcohol was repealed. Another popular explanation links prohibition to fears that minority groups were spreading a substance that incited madness and violence.

Elsewhere hemp has continued to be grown.

According to the Congressional Research Service, hemp imports to the United States totaled $67.3 million in 2017.

Ninety percent of the imports came from Canada. Other suppliers included China, Romania and other European countries, India, the Dominican Republic and Chile. The U.S. is the only industrialized nation to prohibit cultivating hemp.

“We currently cannot grow it but we can import it, said Jim Reaves of the Texas Farm Bureau, which is against legalizing marijuana but is for legalization of hemp. “We eat it, we make clothes out of it, we make all sorts of stuff out of it. … I mean it’s grown in other states, this is a no-brainer.”

“We’ve been doing a lot of education just to make sure everybody understands this is not a bad thing,” Reaves added. “Over the last four years, we’ve had a 50 percent drop in gains from our crops and our crop production. This would give our farmers additional revenue, especially in some of those bad years.”

Content retrieved from: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Texas-farmers-see-new-source-of-green-in-legal-13191299.php.

52 people sickened by fake CBD oil in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — U.S. health officials are urging states to regulate marijuana oil extracts after investigating a rash of illnesses tied to the products in Utah. In a report released Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that synthetic products falsely labeled as cannabidiol, or CBD, sickened as many as 52 people from October through January.

The CDC urged states to set up regulatory and control systems “to minimize the risk for recurrences of this emerging public health threat.”

CBD is derived from cannabis but is designed not to produce a high. Users say it provides relief from pain and can fight seizures.

This year, Utah passed a new law that supporters say will prevent the illnesses from happening again.

The oil had previously been in a legal gray area. It’s been legal for people with epilepsy in Utah since 2014, but there is no regulatory system to oversee the oil’s safety.

Bottles labeled as CBD have edged their way into Utah smoke shops and health food stores in recent years. Sales to the general public have been technically illegal but largely ignored by authorities.

“It’s been a little bit of a don’t ask, don’t tell kind of a business,” said Jack Wilbur, a spokesman for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.

There’s been no way for consumers to know if products are what they claim to be, he said.

The CDC report this week found that more than half of the 52 possible cases either tested positive for a synthetic compound called 4-CCB or reporting using a product called Yolo CBD Oil, samples of which contained the synthetic instead of authentic CBD. Efforts to determine what company manufactures Yolo CBD Oil were not successful.

Lt. Ryan Van Fleet, head of major crimes in the State Bureau of Investigation, said no charges were filed or stores were raided based on the illnesses.

This year, the state Legislature passed reforms legalizing CBD for the general public and creating a system to register and test products for quality.

“It does make it legal for people to purchase it,” said state Sen. Evan Vickers, a Republican pharmacist who sponsored the new law. “We just want to make sure that if they are going to purchase it that it is safe.”

Vickers said the new law should prevent people from taking synthetics falsely marketed as CBD.

Utah is currently writing regulations to implement the law, Wilbur said. He expected rules to be finalized by the end of the year.

Nationally, 30 states have legalized some form of medical marijuana and 16 others have laws on CBD-specific medical treatment, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But rules for dispensing and manufacturing CBD vary widely.

Marijuana activists have said Utah’s new law is not enough. They’re pushing a ballot initiative that will legalize medical marijuana beyond the narrow limits approved by state lawmakers this year, which allows use only for terminally ill patients.

“These people having problems with CBD oil is 100 percent a side effect of prohibition,” said Angela Bacca, a media strategist working with advocacy group TRUCE Utah.

Bacca says keeping most forms of cannabis illegal makes people desperate for treatment they can only find through unregulated products.

The Utah lieutenant governor’s office will certify by June 1 whether the initiative can reach the ballot.

Opponents including Vickers and the Republican Gov. Gay Herbert have said the proposal is full of loopholes that could make marijuana too easy to obtain.

Content retrieved from: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/52-people-sickened-by-fake-cbd-oil-in-utah/.