Marijuana Business Magazine May-June 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | May-June 2019 40 T he hemp industry is changing fast. The federal government, not so much. The entire cannabis industry cel- ebrated last December, when hemp was removed from the Controlled Substances Act in the 2018 Farm Bill. All of a sudden, the obstacles of doing business with a quasi-legal plant—one considered a crime to grow outside limited state pilot projects—appeared to vanish. Hemp entrepreneurs won access to all the federal benefits available to other agricultural commodities: crop insur- ance, intellectual-property protection, tax deductions, the list goes on. Even better, the headaches that come with doing business in the black market seemed to be problems of the past. No more CBD products taken off shelves. No more gymnastics to get and keep a banking account. No more dreaded 280(E) tax code. So, the hemp industry entered 2019 in a giddy mood, and rightfully so. After decades of talking up hemp’s benefits, cannabis activists succeeded in making it legal, setting the stage for eventual federal marijuana legalization. Finally! And then … not much happened. • The U.S. Department of Agricul- ture (USDA) said hemp regula- tions would take months, maybe until the 2020 planting season. • Hours after the bill became law, the U.S. Food and Drug Adminis- tration (FDA) said CBD still can’t go in foods or dietary supple- ments. Almost as soon as the FDA said it would take another look at CBD, agency Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb abruptly resigned, leaving that review in question. • Agronomists now say that insur- ance companies likely won’t cover hemp crops for years, until average yields become better understood. • At least one state, Idaho, is argu- ing in a criminal case that hemp is still a controlled substance until the USDA writes the hemp rules. Kicking the Can Down the Road It’s been a frustrating few months for hemp entrepreneurs who expected to see CBD on the shelves of every Tar- get and Costco by now. Why must the federal government be so slow, when hemp products offer myriad benefits for consumers searching for pain relief and a way to eschew traditional pharmaceuticals? It’s enough to make you want to throw your hands up and complain about do-nothing bureaucrats in Washington DC. It’s enough to make you want to shout, “Drain the swamp!”—something a few frus- trated hemp activists have said while arguing the FDA could be influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. But I don’t see it that way. The federal government does move at a glacial pace. But it still moves, and hemp is still paving the way for larger drug-policy change. Take the creaky ol’ USDA, for example. The agency has done nothing more than hold a couple of “listening sessions” about hemp. That’s pretty annoying if you’re a farmer trying to decide how much hemp to plant this year. But think about the kind of seismic change those listening sessions signify. The federal government is listening to cannabis producers, not comparing them to criminal cartels. It’s slow work, sure, and doubtless there will be more regulatory delays ahead. I’m guessing it will be years before the dream of full hemp legalization is fulfilled. But hemp is doing just what activists always believed it could: pave the way for larger cannabis reform by opening the public’s eyes to the plant’s huge potential. So, don’t let the slow-moving federal government make you pine for the days when hemp companies had to operate under a patchwork of state laws. State governments move more quickly than the feds. But consider this annoying federal lag time an opportunity to resolve issues before the nation turns to the thornier problem of legalizing all varieties of cannabis sativa, including high-THC marijuana. Kristen Nichols is the editor of Hemp Industry Daily. You can reach her at kristenn@hempindustrydaily.com . Slow But Steady True hemp legalization is going to take years, but the entire cannabis industry will benefit from work done now Hemp Notebook | Kristen Nichols

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