Marijuana Business Magazine August 2019

There are plenty of medicines delivered through vaporized inhalers. But health authorities simply don’t buy the idea that inhaling burning plant material can be healthy, no matter the plant’s lack of nicotine or impairing cannabinoids. I doubt hemp changes that belief. Instead, I fear that those Instagram models blowing luxuriant clouds of hemp smoke are inviting meddling from the same health and safety agencies that have largely ignored the trend of people blending cannabinoids into tinctures and salves. Second, the trend works against decades of hemp activism to per- suade the public that hemp is totally different than marijuana. Hemp pre- rolls make it harder for every hemp entrepreneur who still has to explain to banks and investors that, no, you can’t get high from smoking (insert hemp product here). I don’t have an easy answer here. I don’t want to smoke hemp, but I do want to see hemp entrepreneurs profit from those who do. I guess I just want hemp entrepreneurs to note that a growing number of states are trying to ban smoked hemp even as they legalize other commercial hemp activity. We all know that it’s a fool’s errand to legalize one use of cannabis but not another. Now that hemp is not a controlled substance, anyone can grow it in the backyard, making state limits on smoked hemp frankly preposterous. Still, politicians of both parties share the hilarious delusion that consumers and the industry march to their beat, and I’d hate to see any more states try to stop this market trend. I guess the sweet spot here would be for hemp entrepreneurs to explore the market for smoked hemp without loudly marketing smoked hemp. Make sense? Smoke hemp if you like. But before you hire that bikini model to lounge in a field and wrap her glossed lips around a hemp pre- roll, consider who might see it. Your customers aren’t the only ones watching. Kristen Nichols is the editor of Hemp Industry Daily . You can reach her at kristenn@hempindustrydaily.com . nextecgroup.com/mjbiz Canna Business Technology A single platform to manage your cannabis business Business optimization and management Health Canada and state reporting Traceability and quality control Secure cloud and data integrity One system that is more than seed to sale

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