Page 9 - Cannabis News Florida October 2019

Big Ag, Big Pharma,

Big Tobacco, Big Paper,

and Now Big Oil

BY JEFF GREENE will shift to hemp.
Big Paper is still the outlier. Big Paper may have been a big reason hemp was ban-
It’s no wonder hemp was made illegal, hemp is the ished in the 1930’s. The current hemp paper price point tells me Big Paper’s contracts
disruptor of the century. with the various governments around the world are safe for now. As of today, Big
Big Ag has control over strains of corn, tomatoes, Paper sits on the outside looking precariously at hemp, and we’re all watching their
potatoes, and virtually every other thing you put on next move closely.
your dinner table. Conversely, hemp is flourishing And lastly, Big Oil, which isn’t even on the radar for most pundits. Oil has trickled
without their control and our industry is scrambling to down to $60 a barrel and oil is used to create plastic, which is sadly expected to out-
ensure they won’t abuse it. However, eventually the best weigh fish in our oceans by 2050. Consider, hemp bioplastics which have been
strains will gain notoriety and earn the lion’s share of around for nearly as long as plastic itself. Plant-based bioplastics break down much
the money and I expect whomever controls those faster than petroleum-based plastics, where bulkier items like plastic bottles take over
strains will join the Big Ag community. 400 years to break down. Hemp is biodegradable, uses less resources to cultivate, and
Big Pharma uses the FDA to keep natural remedies contains cellulose concentrations (65%-70%). A growing number of investors and
out of the marketplace with logical concerns of safety entrepreneurs are buying into hemp bioplastics.
Jeff Greene and efficacy. CBD has luckily bucked this trend and All told, there are more questions than we have answers in this wonderful hemp
thanks to the removal of hemp from the controlled sub- industry, and we are welcoming all entrepreneurs, innovators, and advocators to the
stance list, its evident part of the industry will avoid the controlled research necessary Florida Hemp Council.
to fall under the Big Pharma purview. Excitingly, Epidiolex has advanced through
clinical trials and soon other medicines with THC and CBD ingredients will follow
this path. The FDA has expressed concern over extended use of these elements for
liver toxicity and sedation. In the future, I see low dose OTC CBD widely available
and higher dose CBD, by prescription, in the next five years.
Big Tobacco has recognized smokable hemp is the next cash crop and is rolling over
into the space. Case in point, over the last two years several tobacco fields in
Kentucky have been replaced with hemp. The rapid influx of hemp will cause some
short-term pain, but the market will eventually settle, and more Big Tobacco farmers Jeff Greene is Vice President
of Marketing of the
Florida Hemp Council.

40 October 2019 southfloridahospitalnews.com South Florida Hospital News