Marijuana Business Magazine March 2019

March 2019 | mjbizdaily.com 39 day I could pollinate everyone’s farm within 5 miles,” Najera said. “That whole town would want my head on a spike.” Najera also said he has a friend growing hemp in Oregon who has even received death threats from neighboring marijuana farmers over the same issue. “That’s the inside skinny on why it hasn’t crossed over” completely in the marijuana industry, Najera said. Which is one reason the newly blossoming hemp industry may not be populated completely by marijuana executives and farmers. The Other Green Rush Startup capital is another hurdle keeping marijuana entrepreneurs away. Others include business logistics such as banking and simple farming techniques, Bronstein said. A fourth factor is figuring out the legal- ity of source material for CBD com- panies (because CBD can be derived from both hemp and marijuana). “If you’re a company that’s just dealing in hemp, a lot of the banking issues are just going to go away,” Bron- stein said. “If you’re in the marijuana industry and you’re looking at hemp, those issues are still applicable. “The advice that a lot of people are giving to marijuana companies that want to get in is to keep those companies separate from the marijuana companies completely because of what the federal architecture looks like.” All of this adds up to the conclusion that the hemp field is pretty wide open right now, because getting into hemp isn’t as simple as replacing a marijuana crop with hemp plants. Bronstein said many of the business interests that have reached out to him have very different backgrounds—from traditional agriculture to nutraceuticals and others “that are totally outside the marijuana industry.” Walker, meanwhile, is willing to bet that the hemp industry will even- tually be controlled by companies from traditional agriculture instead of those with backgrounds in mari- juana, like he has. “Three years from now, it’ll be just like any other agricultural crop,” Walker said. John Schroyer is a senior reporter at Marijuana Business Daily based in Sacramento, California. Reach him at johns@mjbizdaily.com . Some Insurance Companies See Your Business as Tough to Insure Aspera Sees You as Easy to Please Products available in CA, CO, FL, OR, TX, WA Aspera can insure cannabis businesses from seed to sale: Growers Manufacturers Medical evaluators Retailers Tenants & landlords Security Corporate Officers Boards of Directors Staffing Services ...and more. Contact your local independent insurance agent today or visit www.asperains.com to learn about commercial insurance through Aspera.

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