Page 5 - Cannabis News Florida May 2022

AROUND THE REGION
TM

When Will Retailers Catch Up With Hemp Laws?

The Federal Farm Bill legal- bring products that focus fired. This also applies to the trucking becoming the baseline, and medical claims
ized hemp in 2018. It was a on the minor cannabi- industry. These are the rules that are are not as prevalent in advertising because
huge deal for those in the hemp noids because it requires changing the slowest because public safety the industry is educating itself on what the
space but most retailers, those salespeople to actually is perceived to be endangered. I would FDA will allow and what it won’t. This
not in the smoke shop world at educate their customers. argue that public safety is actually better if does get more difficult due to the apparent
least stayed oblivious. Creating For many smoke shops, truckers can ease their back pain or pilots civil war within the FDA, with one side
products that are not the stan- getting their employees can relax and focus on his controls. feeling like the plant should have never
dard oils, creams and gummies to do anything other than Being a pioneer in any industry is a chal- been legalized and one side wanting to
was the logical next step in an make change can be chal- lenge, nobody ever said it would be easy actually regulate it.
industry that is expected to lenging (and sometimes and no industry that I have been in has When will retailers and distributors
grow into the billions. How - that is a challenge). been as inclusive and entertaining. Public catch up … when consumers demand it.
ever, large chain retailers are Over the next few opinion has shifted substantially on Stress is at an all-time high in this country
hesitant to accept any hemp BY JEFF GREENE years, the industry will cannabis and arguably even the higher and the population is aging. Tobacco is
products with any THC delta 9. continue to go through a doses of THC should be Federally legal- killing them. There will come a time when
Consumers are hesitant to try consolidation. The big ized and regulated now that we have truckers stand up to the Department of
hemp products, especially those that have CBD companies are getting gobbled up by exceeded 25 states that have legalized it. Transportation and demand change.
routine drug tests, are hesitant due to the publicly traded companies, out of necessi- This country was founded on states’ exper- Professional sports have already started
trace amounts of THC delta 9. Lastly, ty more than anything. Scale is expensive. imentation and once that can be studied, changing and both the NFL and MLB have
Amazon remains bi-polar in their rules, Growing into a brand is expensive. the best results from each state are adopted eliminated THC from their bevy of tests. If
allowing then not allowing, then allowing, Growing a category is very expensive. All and a Federal regulation is born. This is you are thinking about getting into the
and then allowing advertising, and then of these things are required for a good por- the standard way to do things, but business, it’s not too late but it will be
throttling it. tion of the hemp industry. cannabis has never been standard. This is soon. Consolidation will increase the bar-
It’s time for the FDA to step up and give The transition from smoke shop prod- apparent from the 1930s when it was used rier to entry and costs will continue to rise
guidance on low dose cannabinoids and ucts to consumer-packaged goods has as a tool for racism and protectionism. due to inflation and the supply issues that
low-level THC products. begun. We are seeing better packaging, And throughout the 1960s and 1970s, are a reality due to the pandemic and will
The FDA to its credit has been hesitant better advertising, better products. The when it was used as a tool for search and remain an issue for years. Hopefully, our
to pass rules without the science. And farmers have been the hardest hit. For seizure. And even today, the industry Federal government will incentivize man-
with a pandemic taking up most of the those large companies that didn’t find a struggles with communication with law ufacturing not just in hemp but in every
oxygen in the agency, the science has been publicly traded company, bankruptcy enforcement because it is a perceived we sector. If we have learned nothing from the
slow. Our industry is also a bit bi-polar. We occurred, both in Kentucky and Colorado. vs them dynamic. In general, most good last two years, it is obvious that we need to
have GRAS (generally regarded as safe), And the farmers in those states were the hemp and cannabis companies reach out bring back American manufacturing.
fiber and cannabinoid products. Fiber is victims of visions gone amiss. to law enforcement early and often to
not being ingested so it is not subject to Trying to create products with long term avoid any misunderstandings.
the same regulations as food. Alas, drug strategy on pricing and demand continues Finally, products are getting better. Visit the Florida Hemp Council at
products, making medical claims, are fac- to prove challenging because of the wide Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) is www.TheFLHC.org for more info.
ing their own challenges with an FDA that swings in biomass prices and the lack of
is racing to catch up with the science. And readily accepted distribution and retail.
the traditional barriers to prevent new The expectation is that this is temporary,
products in the building industry are slow- and prices will eventually normalize at a
ly crumbling, with hemp-based wood and level that farmers can accept, and manu-
hemp-based insulation slowly gaining facturers can rely on. Regulators will start
acceptance. to allow low levels of THC in blood and
Smoke shops are tending toward the urine tests so that the health benefits of
legal psychotropic products rather than hemp can be realized by pilots and truck-
the healthier wellness products. That ers and the like. It’s insane that a pilot can
tracks, but it has definitely slowed the go out and drink the night before a flight
additional products that are coming out. and not have any issues, but if he takes a
Smoke shops have been hesitant to full spectrum hemp product he can be

48 May 2022 cannabisnewsflorida.com Cannabis News Florida