A trio of state health and regulatory agencies have come to an agreement on how to test industrial hemp products in Colorado. In a joint bulletin issued Friday, September 21, the Colorado departments of Public Health and Environment, Agriculture and Revenue announced looser restrictions for licensed marijuana testing labs that wish to test industrial hemp and hemp-derived CBD products. Previously, […]
Hemp Policy & Legal
Delaware bill allowing industrial hemp farming now law
A measure to legalize marijuana was not passed the last legislative session, but a bill paving the way for industrial hemp and another bill allowing for the expungement of marijuana-related convictions were. Gov. John Carney has recently signed them both into law. During a two-day, bill-signing extravaganza, Aug. 28 and Aug. 29, Carney signed 29 […]
New Mexico Moves Closer To Allowing Hemp Cultivation
The state Department of Agriculture is proposing rules that would allow the growing of hemp in New Mexico – a key step in carrying out a 2017 law that Gov. Susana Martinez opposed. The rules outline licensing and testing requirements to ensure that hemp – a relative of marijuana – doesn’t have high levels of […]
Utah Officials Give Green Light For Industrial Hemp Production
Utah Farmers now have the rules and regulations in place to grow industrial hemp. Lawmakers in this year’s legislative session passed two bills giving the Department of Agriculture and Food the task of organizing an industrial hemp program for local producers. Three years ago the farm bill allowed pilot programs to grow industrial hemp for […]
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 […]
Illinois Governor Rauner Signs Bill Lifting Industrial Hemp Ban
After clearing the General Assembly with near–unanimous support, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law Senate Bill 2298, which lifts restrictions on the production of industrial hemp in Illinois, effective immediately. Industrial hemp fibers can be used for products ranging from building materials and textiles to cosmetics and health food, for example, through processes that reduce safety and environmental hazards. Filed in January by state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, […]
Hemp is back in Wisconsin, but with optimism comes the challenge of a new market
Hemp farmers and their supporters are bullish about the future as they prepare to harvest their first crop under a state program that started five months ago. “Hemp can change everything if we utilize it right,” said Andrew Johnson, a licensed hemp processor and founder of Wisconsin Hemp Strategies. Gov. Scott Walker and legislators in […]
How a Pair of Kentucky Pols Are About to Legalize Hemp
On nights that Congress is in session, Rep. James Comer, a farmer from Kentucky, lays down on a fold-up mattress in his office on the fifth floor of the Longworth building and hits the lights by 10:30. Before he does, he reaches for a small bottle of CBD oil (made from Kentucky hemp) and squeezes […]
California’s exploding market for hemp CBD products rocked by sporadic crackdowns
The pink menus at Coffee Dose, a Costa Mesa coffee shop, list lattes infused with trendy ingredients such as tumeric powder and grass-fed butter. The menus also have several ingredients carefully hidden by lines of Wite-Out. But look closely enough and you can make out two words: “CBD oil.” Cannabidiol, known as CBD, is one […]
Texas Advocates Are Pushing To Legalize Hemp
Farmers in Texas are well positioned to be top producers of what’s poised to become the next major U.S. cash crop — hemp — but only if state lawmakers let them, advocates told a legislative committee at the Capitol on Tuesday. “Texas could lead the nation’s hemp economy,” said Shawn Hauser, a representative of the […]
California Bans Hemp-Derived CBD Oil
Despite the fact it has received little media attention, a recent decision from Sacramento bureaucrats has potentially far-reaching implications for the cannabis industry — and for patients who have come to rely on CBD to treat a wide range of ailments. On July 6, the California Department of Public Health issued a memo making it clear that CBD oil […]
Senate passes bipartisan Farm Bill to legalize industrial hemp production
Today, the U.S. Senate passed, on a bipartisan 86-11 vote, legislation that includes Virginia priorities championed by U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA). Specifically, the 2018 Senate Farm Bill includes a Warner-Kaine sponsored measure to legalize industrial hemp production, a crop which is already cultivated for research purposes in Virginia but which the agriculture industry cannot currently grow for commercial use. “This bipartisan bill […]
CBD is Not A Controlled Substance – The “Source Rule” Applies
An Urgent Request from Bob Hoban – Hoban Law Group As you may know, the Hoban Law Group (HLG) appeared before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (in February, 2018) in San Francisco – Hemp Industry Association, et al. vs. DEA (“HIA Suit”) –concerning the issue of CBD extraction from hemp, and the legality of industrial hemp, […]
In Maine, Industrial Hemp Is The Crop To Watch
Farmer Ben Rooney spent several days last week rushing around Wild Folk Farm in Benton planting 300 seedlings of Maine’s trendiest new crop, industrial hemp. “We’re kind of in the heat of it now,” he said. It’s an apt expression; hemp is Maine’s hot new crop after nearly a century of falling by the wayside. […]
Senate Agriculture Panel Passes Farm Bill With Hemp Legalization
The Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday passed the massive farm bill by a 20-1 vote and overcame an attempt to tighten subsidy payments to farmers. The draft farm bill, officially known as the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, contains more than 1,000 pages and covers everything from farm subsidies and food stamps to trade and rural […]
US Senate Unanimously Approves Hemp Measure
The U.S. Senate, without objection from any lawmaker of either party, adopted legislation on Tuesday recognizing “the growing economic potential of industrial hemp” as well as its “historical relevance.” The resolution, which was passed to commemorate “Hemp History Week,” also decries the fact that “ the United States is the largest consumer of hemp products in the world, but the […]
For Michigan Farmers, Growing Hemp Is No Laughing Matter
For going on a century, Americans spoke of hemp in the same breath as marijuana. Both were for joking, smoking and getting arrested. And both were made illegal by the U.S. Congress in 1937. Yet, although marijuana and hemp come from the same plant — called cannabis sativa— they’re not the same. Traditional hemp can’t intoxicate […]
Could Hemp Be A Savior For Kansas Agriculture?
Clark Kelman raises corn and soybeans just like his father and grandfather did on the High Plains of Kansas. There isn’t anything wrong with that, the fifth-generation Haskell County farmer said. But with water levels declining on their southwest Kansas farm and the downturn in the farm economy, he envisions growing something different. Kelman wants […]
