Marijuana Business Magazine November-December 2019

I magine running a race with brand- new shoes and a burst of energy but no idea what the course looks like. That’s the position in which today’s hemp industry finds itself. Every level of the hemp supply chain—from farmers experimenting with a new crop to retailers looking to supply white-hot consumer demand for CBD—is eager to capitalize on the plant’s new legal status in the United States. But the enthusiasm comes at a time when the racecourse hasn’t been set, making the path to market as mysterious as a running trail leading into a dark forest. The U.S. Congress fired the starting gun on the hemp race in late 2018, when a new Farm Bill ended an experimental period of growing low-THC cannabis varieties. Congress took hemp out of the Controlled Substances Act and gave the crop legal protections that black-market cannabis could only dream of, from crop insurance to a guarantee of interstate transportation. Hemp entrepreneurs can participate in the modern mainstream economy. They can raise capital in the same ways other startup businesses do and access mainstream retail channels such as grocery stores and gas stations. (See US Hemp Industry Confronts a Patchwork of State Laws New Factbook offers detailed snapshot of hemp and CBD markets, including nationwide regulatory landscape and market forecasts By Kristen Nichols Marijuana Business Magazine | November-December 2019 158 $199 99 2019 | 2nd Edition ANNUAL HEMP & CBD INDUSTRY FACTBOOK Thedeinitivebenchmark analysiso Hemp& CBDmarkets in the UnitedStates Hemp & CBD Industry Factbook