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A32 FEATURE
Friday 14 december 2018

With OK from Congress, US hemp market set to boom

By GILLIAN FLACCUS grams) a day by mid-2019,
Associated Press according to a company
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — statement on the deal.
Hemp is about to get the Isolate is a crystalline pow-
nod from the federal gov- der form of CBD and is the
ernment that marijuana, purest product possible.
its cannabis plant cousin, The odorless, tasteless pow-
craves. der is commonly sold in one
A provision of the farm bill gram jars that retail for $35
that received final approval to $60 each.
in Congress on Wednesday “We were at the right
removes hemp from the place at the right time,”
list of federally controlled David Rendimonti, presi-
substances and treats the dent and CEO for LiveWell,
low-THC version of the can- said. “You’re in a high-val-
nabis plant like any other ue, high-growth market. It’s
agricultural crop. THC is the an amazing opportunity
cannabis compound that and now you have some-
gives pot its high. In this April 23, 2018 file photo, a sign designates the type of crop grown in a field as it stands ready thing that’s really going to
President Trump is expect- to plant another hemp crop for Big Top Farms near Sisters, Ore. explode.” FDA Commis-
ed to sign the bill into law Associated Press sioner Scott Gottlieb has
next week. without fear of prosecution estate until three years ago, to $820 million today and said in the past that CBD
The change sets the stage as long as they are careful when she and her husband about a third of that is from products will be treated
for greater expansion in an not to run afoul of the U.S. started Fields of Hemp LLC. hemp-derived CBD, Mur- like any other products that
industry already seeing ex- Food and Drug Administra- Hemp looks like marijuana phy said. make unproven claims to
plosive growth because of tion. Many did so before, to the untrained eye, but it Large companies already shrink cancer tumors or
growing demand for can- but always looked over contains less than 0.3 per- experimenting in the hemp other statements. The FDA
nabidiol, or CBD, a non- their shoulder because the cent THC. Federal legisla- space anticipated the pol- has sent warning letters to
psychoactive compound law was unclear. tion passed four years ago icy change and are poised some companies market-
found in hemp that many Michelle and Scott Fields, cracked open the door for to cash in. ing CBD. The new bill re-
see as a way to better who run an organic hemp some farming by allowing Vitality, based in Eureka, tains the FDA’s authority
health. farm outside Grants Pass, states to create hemp pi- Montana, is a large U.S. over products that contain
Federal legalization could Oregon, include a detailed lot programs or to conduct hemp producer and grew CBD.
triple the overall hemp mar- letter to law enforcement research on hemp cultiva- 20,000 acres this year. The “That’s the big question
ket to $2.5 billion by 2022, in each package they ship tion. company last week an- mark,” Murphy said. “The
with $1.3 billion of those that explains the dried flow- Twenty-three states issued nounced a merger with the market’s going to grow, the
sales from hemp-derived ers inside may look a lot like 3,544 licenses in 2018, said Canadian CBD extractor market’s going to expand,
CBD products, according pot, but actually can’t get Eric Steenstra, president of and marketer LiveWell. but it’s going to come
to New Frontier Data, a anyone high. Vote Hemp, a nonprofit The new company aspires down to what the FDA is
cannabis market research “Probably the best part of hemp advocacy group. to become one of the larg- going to do about it.”
firm. this is that everybody can At the same time, the total est hemp production and Individual states can also
“It’s a huge deal because take a sigh of relief and not market for hemp — from CBD extraction companies make and enforce rules
it’s a domino effect. Banks worry about that gray area textiles to seeds to CBD in North America, produc- banning hemp or CBD
can get involved now and anymore,” said Michelle oil — has grown from a ing more than 6,600 pounds even though it’s no longer
if banks get involved, then Fields, who worked in real few million dollars in 2015 of CBD isolate (3,000 kilo- considered a controlled
credit card processors get substance — another wild
involved — and if that hap- card. Yet there’s no ques-
pens, then big box stores tion legalization means
like Target and Wal-Mart things will get a lot easier
get into it,” said Sean Mur- for small farmers.
phy, a New Frontier data Clarenda Stanley-Ander-
analyst who’s tracked the son and her husband, Mal-
industry since its infancy in colm Anderson Sr., lost two
2015. “All these big players acres of hemp they grew
are going to come in.” under a North Carolina
Hemp, like marijuana, al- pilot program when Hur-
ready is legal in some ricane Florence barreled
states. Approval at the na- through in September. They
tional level brings a host of had no crop insurance be-
benefits that the pot indus- cause they couldn’t get it
try has yet to see. when hemp was listed as
Hemp farmers will be able a federally controlled sub-
to buy crop insurance, ap- stance.
ply for loans and grants, The Andersons plan to plant
and write off their business 15 acres this spring and put
expenses on their taxes like up greenhouses. They will
any other farmer. buy crop insurance and
And those who sell dried have just signed a contract
flower or CBD-infused prod- In this September 2018 photo provided by Clarenda “Cee” Stanley-Anderson, Stanley-Anderson to provide their dried flower
ucts made from hemp can and her husband, Malcolm Anderson Sr., pose for pictures of their hemp-farming business, Green to a Denver company that
Heffa Farms, Inc., in Liberty, N.C.
now ship across state lines Associated Press will extract CBD from it.q