“I’m a little bit more hopeful for the future,” said Jason Johannessen, director of operations at NuTrac Hemp in Blacksburg, a small company that has been extracting and distilling hemp biomass for its line of CBD products since 2021. “Democrats have to step up and deliver, but we’re working with lawmakers from both sides all the time, and I don’t see a reason why we won’t get it done.”

Only the sale of intoxicating cannabinoid alternatives derived from hemp is legal outside the medical cannabis market. It’s already legal in Virginia to buy and sell products made from cannabinoid alternatives that come from hemp, but NuTrac Hemp has been pushing for legislation that would eventually allow the company to obtain a processing license for cannabis — a hemp species with a higher content of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, one of many cannabinoids found in the plant that is primarily responsible for the “high” associated with cannabis. [Read More @ Cardinal News]