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Kristen Nichols

Kristen is a Denver-based reporter for Marijuana Business Daily specializing in the hemp and CBD industries. Previously, she worked at the Associated Press for nearly 20 years. She started covering the marijuana legalization movement in 2009 – when medical stores started popping up around Denver – and wrote about the state’s first legal hemp harvest. Kristen also covered agriculture and politics in Maryland and her home state of Georgia

An infographic showing how chromatography and degradation work to remove THC from hemp oil.

Cannabis extractors are exploring THC remediation options

Published April 2, 2021

One is quick but expensive. The other is economical but slow – and tricky to get just right. Extractors looking to isolate certain cannabinoids have long relied on chromatography to dial up or down the many cannabinoids in marijuana and hemp plants. But a technique formerly derided as the mark of an inferior product – […]

Largest human CBD trial launches with eye toward checking safety of trace THC

Published March 19, 2021

The largest-yet human CBD toxicological trial has been launched in Europe to check the effects of consuming trace amounts of THC. The European Industrial Hemp Association says it will assess 200 CBD users for a 30-day period. The association tells UK-based Cannabis Health News that the goal is to demonstrate to European regulators that trace […]

Unique cannabinoid delta-8 divides cannabis extraction industry

Published March 16, 2021

A rare cannabinoid that mimics the effects of delta-9 THC but can easily be produced from CBD is grabbing headlines and delivering impressive profits to extractors battling slumping prices for other hemp extracts.

California’s Humboldt County permanently bans hemp cultivation

Published February 15, 2021

Humboldt County in Northern California’s famed Emerald Triangle permanently banned outdoor cultivation of low-THC hemp varieties.

US labor agency: Marijuana trimmers, grow-room employees can’t unionize

Published February 2, 2021

Marijuana cultivators, trimmers, sorters and packagers can’t form unions because they qualify as agricultural laborers, according to a watershed new ruling from U.S. labor regulators. The decision, released last week by the National Labor Relations Board, counters previous decisions by the labor board that marijuana growers are employees and not agricultural workers. The distinction is […]

An elusive pathogen is damaging cannabis crops – here’s how to fight it

Published January 20, 2021

Over and over again, I meet cannabis growers who are not yet aware of a widespread disease that has been appearing more and more across the United States – hop latent viroid (HpLVd).

Study: ‘Cannabis light’ used in Italy in place of sedatives, antidepressants

Published October 16, 2020

Sales in Italy of so-called “cannabis light” – low-THC and CBD-rich flowers derived from hemp – have been linked to a drop in purchases of different medications, indicating some patients chose to abandon prescription drugs in favor of self-medication with an unregulated CBD-based therapy.

First Big Tobacco firm in marijuana seeks bankruptcy protection

Published June 17, 2020

Pyxus International, the first Big Tobacco company to enter the marijuana and hemp sectors, filed for bankruptcy protection after the coronavirus pandemic dealt a financial blow to its operations.

GW Pharma beats projections with $108M in Q4 sales thanks to CBD drug

Published January 13, 2020

A popular cannabis-derived epilepsy treatment is increasing sales for a London company making pharmaceutical treatments from marijuana. London-based GW Pharmaceuticals told investors Monday that it rang up $108 million in sales last quarter and $309 million for calendar 2019. The company’s fourth-quarter sales beat consensus analyst expectations of $102.4 million. GW attributed the sales figures to physicians […]

USDA announces long-delayed hemp rules, calls for total THC testing

Published October 29, 2019 | By Laura Drotleff

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a nationwide proposal for growing hemp and testing its THC content, a move that comes more than 10 months after the U.S. Congress legalized hemp and ordered the USDA to regulate it.

Linton back in cannabis business as chair, investor and adviser

Published September 17, 2019

Ousted Canopy Growth co-CEO Bruce Linton is getting back into the marijuana business in a big way, resurfacing as a senior executive, investor and adviser in three separate companies in the U.S. and Canada. Linton is joining Michigan-based Gage Cannabis Co. as executive chair, parent company Wolverine Partners said Tuesday. Gage said in a news […]

Anti-cannabis governor targets hemp, saying plant too close for police

Published September 10, 2019

A Republican governor who strongly opposes marijuana legalization says that allowing hemp cultivation is just as problematic. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem took her argument national in The Wall Street Journal, arguing in an op-ed column that law enforcement doesn’t have the testing capacity to discern between marijuana and legal hemp, which has no more […]