First, we look at developing Texas hemp regulations and how it could change the future of the plant in the Lone Star State. Matt talks to James Higdon, owner of Cornbread Hemp in Kentucky, about his concerns as an out-of-state hemp producer. James also appeared in episode 32 of the show, our Kentucky Hemp podcast episode.

For a closer look at the Texas hemp regulations, we also got a brief statement from Coleman Hemphill, president of the Texas Hemp Industries Association. Hemp is legal in Texas, but the new regulations could dramatically alter the shape of this fast-growing industry.

To close out this episode, we get an entrepreneur’s perspective on being a hemp producer in Texas from Micheal Tullis, owner of a small hemp boutique. Early Fruit Hemp Co. is finding success in Lubbock Texas despite the small, sometimes hostile market.

Texas to rule on Lone Star hemp regulations

The Texas Department of State Health Services is preparing to make sweeping regulatory changes to how hemp is manufactured, labeled and sold in the state of Texas. Here’ the major proposed changes, summarized from a post by Texas NORML:

• A ban on the “manufacture, processing, distribution, or retail sale of consumable hemp products for smoking”
• Stringent licensing requirements for CBD retailers
• Stringent testing requirements for CBD products sold in state
• Strict requirements for the labeling of hemp products
• Regulations which could restrict sales of CBD products from states like Kentucky and Colorado

Matt and Jim primarily talk about the labeling requirements, and the changes which could ban sales of products from his state. However, hemp advocates locally and nationwide are concerned about the entire set of changes.

We contacted Coleman Hemphill, president of the Texas Hemp Industries Association, but reached him too late to include him in this episode. However, he suggested the state is poorly equipped to implement these changes, since just 2 staff members are assigned to this aspect of the hemp program and no budget dollars have been set aside to implement the complex licensing and testing program.

In addition, Coleman thinks the new regulations might not withstand legal challenges, even if they do go into effect. Not only does he think these regulations clearly conflict with the 2018 Farm Bill which federally legalized hemp, they also cause substantial damage to existing Texas businesses. Both these factors are likely to be compelling in court. Finally, he told us that sales of all out-of-state hemp products should be safe for at least the remainder of 2020.

How to tell Texas to keep all forms of hemp fully legal

We’ll have more a deeper look at this story soon. In the meantime, you can leave a comment on the hemp regulations using this Action Network form or via the formal comment process. You can also call and leave a message for the Texas Department of State Health Services at (512) 231-5653. Coleman recommends both leaving a comment and calling for maximum effectiveness, but the deadline for formal comments is July 8, 2020 (Monday).

You’ve got hemp questions? We’ve got hemp answers!

Send us your hemp questions and you might hear them answered on one of our Hemp Q&A episodes. Send your written questions to us on Twitter, Facebook, matt@ministryofhemp.com, or call us and leave a message at 402-819-6417. Keep in mind, this phone number is for hemp questions only and any other inquiries for the Ministry of Hemp should be sent to info@ministryofhemp.com

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Texas Hemp Stories: Complete episode transcript

Below you’ll find the complete transcript of episode 42 of the Ministry of Hemp Podcast, “Texas Hemp Stories”:

Matt Baum:
I’m Matt Baum and this is the Ministry of Hemp podcast brought to you by ministryofhemp.com. America’s leading advocate for hemp and hemp education. (silence) Today on the show, we’re talking about Texas. Texas represents one of the largest hemp markets in the United States. Recently, there’s been some new regulations introduced that are a little, well unclear to say the least. Back in episode 32, I talked to Jim Higdon, he’s the cofounder of Cornbread Hemp out of Kentucky. He wrote a fantastic book about the history of hemp in Kentucky. He contacted me to tell me about these new regulations.

Troubling new Texas hemp regulations

Jim Higdon:
I’m confident that I’m still confused, but at least I’ve got some firm understanding of what it is I’m confused about and also everyone asks you like lots of dogs hearing noises for the first time. [crosstalk 00:01:06]

Matt Baum:
Right, right, right. I would say any good legislation should be like that though. Right? It should be completely confusing and absolutely unclear, so we can argue about what it actually means just in case we want it to mean something else. Right?

Jim Higdon:
It disappears by my reading to mean something bad. Everyone who should know this is like, “Well, I think I’ll look at that. That’s interesting.” Not like, “Oh, we looked at that and that’s not the case because of XYZ you’re not. Just like uh, uh.”

Matt Baum:
Right. So, let’s talk about it. As we understand it, what is being proposed and then we’ll talk about what that could possibly mean and what the issue is.

Jim Higdon:
As I understand it, talked with you from Louisville, Kentucky, the great state of Texas has already passed CBD legislation to legalize the sale of CBD products in Texas.

Matt Baum:
Right.

Jim Higdon:
What we’re looking at now is the Department of Health and Human Services maybe. The State Department of Health in Texas is issuing regulations on how that would go about. So, it’s the executive branch of the Texas state government setting the rules up for how that CBD industry will operate legally at Texas.

Matt Baum:
Got you.

New labeling requirements for Texas CBD sales

Jim Higdon:
Okay? So, law is passed. It’s legal. This is just the framework for how that would go about. In the regulations, it says out of state CBD products can be sold in Texas. Well, before we get to that, before that, there’s some curious novel label requirements that are going to be required in Texas. They’re going to require all the labels to have the URL of the business, the email address of the business, and I believe a phone number of the business on the label, which is regulation that we’ve not seen before from any other state and [crosstalk 00:03:10]

Matt Baum:
Yeah. I mean, I guess I get a URL, that makes sense. I can see, like for marketing purposes, why you might put your URL on a label or something, but a phone number, that’s kind of odd.

Jim Higdon:
The phone number is odd considering the font size. It’s going to have to be the fit, is going to be like five point font or something. The other thing is that all that is made redundant by the QR code, which is also required in the Texas proposed regulation. That’s a good thing because all CBD products should have QR codes that link to lab reports. So, you can determine the potency and safety of all those CBD products, absolutely should have QR codes and the Texas regulation requires, mandates QR code and that’s good, but with the QR code, it makes redundant needing a URL or a phone number because you just like QR code it and there you are. So, the label requirements are a little funny and could require supplemental labeling at one form or another, not just for my company, but for many company looking to do business in Texas.

Matt Baum:
The catch is not that like, it’s a big deal that the phone number there, but the catch would be, well, now all these companies may have to completely redo their labels just so they can be sold in Texas.

Jim Higdon:
Correct.

Matt Baum:
Got you.

Lack of clear FDA regulations hurts industry

Jim Higdon:
This is just one example of the lack of FDA regulations is causing a vacuum where individual states are making their own regulations, and Utah has strict regulations, but Utah is a small market. Texas is now implementing a unique kind of strict regulation, which is fine, but Texas is a huge market. There’s going to be a lot of CBD companies who want to comply with those Texas regulations, but they’re different in every state. So, as this patchwork of regulations, we’re going to … could have contradictory labels where you have to have different labels for different states and they can’t go to each other states. So, it’s just an example of how desperately we need federal regulations to make these uniform, so states like Texas aren’t stepping out and making these decisions on their own without consulting other states in the process. This is unfortunate-

Matt Baum:
Leaving small business people-

Jim Higdon:
… frustrating, but not really Texas’ fault, necessarily. It’s the federal government’s fault.

Matt Baum:
But, it puts a small business person in a situation where they may have to decide, “Okay. Is it worth it for us to make new labels just so we can get into Texas or do we make new labels I can get into Texas and say, “All right, screw Utah, I guess we’re not going to sell stuff there because their label has to be completely different.”? It’s just a mess.

Jim Higdon:
Well, and I don’t mean [inaudible 00:05:58] Utah as contradictory to Texas, but just as an example like Utah like-

Matt Baum:
Hypotetically. Yeah.

Jim Higdon:
… If you’re selling in Utah, you have to submit all your labels to the state of Utah for approval. If you’re selling in Denver, in Colorado, you have to get approved by the Denver Department of Public Health. Every state has some very curious regulatory compliance to go through and it’s this crazy bureaucratic patchwork that companies like mine have to navigate. Texas is about to come online with this particularly strange set of requirements, but so the phone number on the label like it’s inconvenient, but whatever. It’s fine, we’ll deal with it. The problem is in the same set of regulations for out of state CBD companies, Texas is like fine. You can sell out of state CBD products under these three circumstances.
Circumstance number one is coming from a state with a hit program that’s been approved by the USDA under the 2018 arm bill as I understand that language to be. Now, the problem with that, it sounds very normal and rational is if Texas wants out of state products, then you get products from states with the USDA approved program. The problem is, is the rules that the USDA implemented in late last year are so strict that 14 states have chosen not to comply with those standards and go by 2014 farm bill standards. Those states include Kentucky, Colorado, and Oregon, where the top three producing cannabinoid states in America with the top brands located in those three states. It seems like the Texas regulations bar CBD products from Kentucky, Colorado, and Oregon, unless the second provision in the out-of-state CBD regulations apply, but it’s written in this confusing manner that I don’t know what it means, and I couldn’t get anyone on the phone today in the Texas state government to tell me. So, it’s-

Matt Baum:
So, let me see if I’ve got this. So basically, Texas is saying we will only be able to buy CBD products that are adhering to the 2018 farm bill and the three biggest states who are arguably doing it the best and have the most support for CBD and hemp are going by the 2014 farm bill, because that one was looser than the new regulations, therefore you can’t sell stuff from Kentucky, Colorado, and what was the other one? I’m sorry.

Jim Higdon:
Oregon.

Matt Baum:
And Oregon in Texas.

Jim Higdon:
Again, this is my reading of Texas proposed regulations. I’ve not had any help from anyone and it’s confusing and I’m not a Texan. So, I could very well be getting this wrong, but as I understand it, here’s the language. A registered selling consumable hemp products processed or manufactured outside this state must submit to the department, evidence that the products were manufactured in another state or foreign jurisdiction with one, a state or tribal jurisdiction plan approved by the US Department of Agriculture under US code, which I believe is this 2018 farm bill thing, to a plan established under that same code. That if that plan applies to the state or jurisdiction, this is the part that I don’t understand, if that plan applies to the state of jurisdiction. So, maybe this is the caveat that the 2014 farm bill applies, but if that’s the case, then why have the number one, if the number two is to get out of jail free card?

Matt Baum:
Right.

Jim Higdon:
Then the third option is foreign jurisdiction. So obviously, that’s not the case. So, [crosstalk 00:09:53]

Matt Baum:
I know nobody can see this because if you’re listening to the show, but I am making that twisty dog head we talked about as you read this. Yeah, this is a sticky wicket.

Jim Higdon:
Yeah. It seems like it’s saying that only USDA approved hemp states can sell in Texas. That excludes 14 states as I understand it, that includes Kentucky. So, if I want to sell to Texas, I can maybe do it online, but not in retail. I’m fulfilling online orders into Texas every day.

Matt Baum:
Right. It sounds like we need to get someone from Texas on the phone to clear this up, but I wouldn’t even … Where do you go?

Jim Higdon:
I mean, I don’t know who’s covering the hemp [inaudible 00:10:40] in Texas. Texas is a foreign land to me. So, I’m a little bit out of my depth. I just am focused on this as a business person, because we’re trying to get Cornbread hemp everywhere we can, and really interested in doing the work in Texas. We have … Cornbread is a brand that will resonate really well in Texas.

Matt Baum:
Definitely.

Jim Higdon:
We can’t do that if these proposed regulations read like that, like they seem to read.

Matt Baum:
If this continues, it might not just be Texas. It could be a lot of states.

Jim Higdon:
Right. Not just Kentucky. This isn’t just my self interest. This is … if they want to buy at Charlotte’s web retail out of Colorado, it would also apply it seems. It’s just strange and it’s also strange that … I mean, it makes me feel particularly vulnerable that I’m totally wrong because I’m the only person saying, “Hey, is this a problem?”

Matt Baum:
Well, if nothing else, we’ll find out if it is, I guess.

Jim Higdon:
If I’m wrong, then that’s going to be great. If I’m right, then that’s bad, but then maybe there’s still time to change it.

Matt Baum:
Right.

Jim Higdon:
Because these regulations are still in the post stage. We still have time to raise public awareness enough so that they realize that they’re making a bad regulation. So [crosstalk 00:11:53]

Matt Baum:
Well, and even scarier part is maybe you’re not wrong and they don’t understand and didn’t even realize what you’re saying. That’s the really scary part. If they go, “Wait a minute, we didn’t even think about that.”

Jim Higdon:
That feels like the rightest answer. I think that’s the situation because they wrote these rules and didn’t realize they were excluding people. They just wrote the rules. Trying to be boy scouts about it. By boy scouting it, they cut themselves short.

A developing story in Texas

Matt Baum:
As of June 4th, Thursday night, when I’m editing this, we still haven’t heard from Texas. We still don’t know what these proposed regulations mean or who to even talk to about them. Therein lies the insanity of the hemp business right now. All people like Jim are asking is tell us the rules and make those rules apply to every state so we can adhere to them. I can’t think of another business in the world that is asking for this much regulation. Here is hemp saying tell us what to do and we’ll do it, but when it comes down to individual states making rules that only apply to those states, you end up in a quagmire, just like this where three of the most important states working in the hemp business right now could be excluded from retail in Texas, one of the largest markets in the United States, and that is insane.
Now, I’m not trying to demonize Texas. I’m not saying there’s anything fundamentally wrong with Texas. In fact, in our next story, we’re going to hear a really nice story about Texas, but this is a perfect example of where the federal government needs to step in and make these guidelines so they can apply to every state. Jim and I went on to talk about how Mitch McConnell, the Senator from Kentucky, who’s been an important Kentucky hemp advocate is noticeably silent and absent of late. Yes, there’s a lot of stuff going on right now between COVID and protests against racial injustice, both of which are important and need our attention, but at the same time, when you have a discussion of regulation like this, that ends on the 8th of June, four days from now, and we can’t get an answer, that is scary and that could set a precedent.
Jim isn’t alone here. He gave me the contact information for Jana Groda, who is the vice president of the Kentucky Hemp Industry Association, who has also reached out and can’t get any information out of Texas yet. My initial plan was to reach out and find out for myself, but I can’t get that information either. So, we’re going to continue to follow this one and I’ll let you know, and here’s hoping the Jim is wrong and this is just some strangely worded regulations.
No, it’s not all weird, confusing, bad news coming out of Texas. There’s some good stories too. My next guest, his name is Michael Tullis and he is the proprietor and owner of Early Fruit Hemp in Lubbock, Texas. You might know Lubbock as the birthplace of Buddy Holly. It’s a smallish Texas town in northeast Texas with a population about 250,000 people. I was surprised to hear how well a small hemp business could do in a town like this. Here’s my conversation with Michael Tullis of Early Hemp.
Tell me your story. How do you end up in the hemp world as a small retailer in Lubbock, Texas of all places.

Selling hemp in Lubbock, Texas

Michael Tullis:
Completely by accident. So, really I was interested in hemp and I started seeing on the shelves here in Lubbock and I was like, “Wow, that’s really cool. Let me buy one of these pre-rolls to test it out and see how it goes.” I liked the idea of it really, but I didn’t like that product at all.

Matt Baum:
Really?

Michael Tullis:
Yeah. It didn’t smoke good. It didn’t taste good. Nothing.

Matt Baum:
How long ago was this? When was this?

Michael Tullis:
So man, it started showing up around here around 2018. Maybe the end of it is probably when I first noticed it.

Matt Baum:
So just a couple of years ago?

Michael Tullis:
So, [crosstalk 00:16:04] here in Lubbock a couple of years. Yeah. I honestly never even heard of smoking hemp flower. I knew CBD oil was getting pretty popular. So, I was just taking it back and decided to give it a shot.

Matt Baum:
So, that was … you tried it and you were like, “I’m going to do this. I’m going for it.”

Michael Tullis:
I was like, “Well, I’m now going to do this if this is what it’s going to be like.” But, I do like cannabis a lot and I have for a long time. So, I figured I’d try some more out and did some research and I found some really cool farms that are doing some really good stuff. Mostly up in Oregon, but across the country. By the time, I tried a bunch of different products of theirs, I decided I might as well go at it myself, see if they’ll open up any deals with me. So, I’ve got a couple of farms that are working with me, I guess, wholesale. Producing everything there from seed to packaging, which is really cool. It’s really small naturally craft type product.

Matt Baum:
So, not that I expect you to be like a full on hemp scientist here, but you said when you first tried smokable flower hemp, you didn’t like it. Do you know … What went into the process of deciding “I know I don’t want it to be like that.” What is the process of improving it, I guess? What process you went through to-

Michael Tullis:
I mean, I smoked prerolls before not hemp marijuana prerolls. I mean, I kind of know what they’re supposed to smoke like, know what the insides of them look like. This one didn’t didn’t work at all after several attempts. So, I opened it up and it was like a powder. It wasn’t even … and there was little metal pieces in there. It was like really sketchy. I’m like, “It just looks like they just scraped together something out of a grinder at the end of a long day.” I guess I didn’t really think that I could do it better, but that there was definitely someone out there who was doing it better or it wouldn’t be a thing. [crosstalk 00:18:03]

Matt Baum:
Sure. Was that you guys your first product, the flower, or did you start with tinctures and whatnot?

Michael Tullis:
The flower was where we started. We realized pretty quickly that people wanted the tinctures more than anything or the salves. A lot of people want the gummies too, which is pretty crazy. I’ve never even tried the gummy myself.

Matt Baum:
I’ve tried a few and there’s a few I’ve liked, but it’s definitely not my favorite delivery system.

Michael Tullis:
Really?

Matt Baum:
Yeah.

Michael Tullis:
I’ve heard they’re pretty good [crosstalk 00:18:34]

Matt Baum:
Yeah. Like anything, it depends who’s doing it right and what they’re putting in it. Right?

Michael Tullis:
Right. Right. So, these same farms that I was getting flower from, they were rolling out their own tinctures and their own salves around the same time. So, I just asked them for some of those. I hooked it up and some of them didn’t work as good as others. It took some time to weed through some farms, but we’ve found some really good tinctures as well.

Hemp at the farmers’ market

Matt Baum:
Nice. The majority of your business, is it online or is it local? Is it people from Lubbock coming to Early Hemp or Early Fruit? I keep saying Early Hemp. Sorry. Early Fruit.

Michael Tullis:
No, it’s okay. The majority of our business is local, which is really cool. So, we set up a booth at a farmer’s market once a week. That’s about all we do here, but the response has been amazing.

Matt Baum:
Really?

Michael Tullis:
Yeah. It blew me away. I didn’t think at all that Lubbock, Texas would respond well to a cannabis company.

Matt Baum:
Is Texas hemp friendly? I mean, I know they’ve got some fairly good laws there. In the beginning of this show, I’m actually discussing an issue with some verbiage in their latest rules that are coming out for CBD and hemp in Texas. From your experience as a small business person opening a small hemp business, has it been friendly? Have you felt pushback?

Michael Tullis:
Actually, I haven’t felt any pushback at all.

Matt Baum:
Wow. That’s great.

Michael Tullis:
I haven’t had anyone … I’ve had a couple of people who will come up and give me their opinion about it, but that’s not the law coming up and giving me their opinion bottom online.

Matt Baum:
Sure. As far as like administrative or governmental, it-

Michael Tullis:
Yeah. Nothing’s been a problem at all. Banks around here were an issue for a minute.

Matt Baum:
I can see that being tough definitely.

Michael Tullis:
Finding a small bank, I think was the trick. A lot of the big banks were still scared, but [crosstalk 00:20:28] local banks, they’ll help you out.

Matt Baum:
You’re dealing with a local bank?

Michael Tullis:
Yeah.

Matt Baum:
That’s amazing. That’s totally amazing. What about like credit card processing? You don’t have to tell me who you’re using, but I assume that was difficult to get that going.

Michael Tullis:
It was pretty hard. The company ended up with, there was supposedly a six week wait, ended up actually being 12 weeks. So, we got pushed back pretty far, yeah, at the beginning.

Matt Baum:
Yeah, that’s great. It just sucks right now because everyone is so terrified that at any minute it could be made illegal again. So, major credit card processors are still scared and waiting for the FDA to say, “Nope, it’s okay.” Or … It’s bizarre. What do you think your biggest challenge has been so far? So, for Early Fruit.

Challenges at every step

Michael Tullis:
Really, I think every step of the way has been the biggest challenge. But, once I got banking, it kind of went downhill from there. Everything started falling into place. So, I would say that was it and-

Matt Baum:
The whole discussion with the local banks, getting that set up, was it … this is literally just you face to face saying like, “Look, this is what I want to do. I believe there’s a market here.” You can tell by state law and the farm bill that it’s legal and they were receptive? They were just like, “Michael, we like the cut of your jib. Let’s do this.”

Michael Tullis:
Yeah. It took a few tries and it took a few banks, but I eventually got … I guess I have to get the right pitch down.

Matt Baum:
Fair enough.

Michael Tullis:
They were pretty welcoming. They weren’t too surprised. I guess maybe a few people have been trying around that time and they were willing.

Matt Baum:
That’s great. That is a much better story than I’ve heard from a lot of other people in different states.

Michael Tullis:
I know. I was terrified the whole time. I was like, “Man, this is going to be the hardest thing in the world.” But-

Matt Baum:
Oh yeah. Convincing people that you’re not a marijuana salesman, right?

Michael Tullis:
Yeah. Around here, it’s pretty hard. There’s not too much education on the difference between hemp and marijuana around here.

Matt Baum:
You guys are maintaining a blog on your site. That’s really good. I checked out, by the way, for education-

Michael Tullis:
Well, thank you. Thank you.

Matt Baum:
What about like locally? What are you doing for … Are you doing anything to try and educate the local populace?

Michael Tullis:
Just kind of while I’m there I’m providing as much education as I can answering questions, things like that, but no, I’m not really an outreach person. I even have trouble even typing up these little blogs that I post.

Matt Baum:
Sure.

Michael Tullis:
It’s just some severe stage fright that eventually maybe I’ll get over. But, for now I think I’m doing pretty good getting some education out at the farmer’s market that I go to.

Matt Baum:
Cool. What do you see-

Michael Tullis:
Now, if they want more, they know where to find me.

Matt Baum:
Yeah, right on. What do you see the future for Early Hemp? What are you hoping for? Are you going to try and get into your own farming or you just want to be an out like a retail outlet?

Planting hemp in Texas

Michael Tullis:
Yeah. So, it started as a retail outlet, just trying to get something quality here in Lubbock. Since then, it’s worked and I’ve met a lot of great people. I’ve built some relationships in the hemp industry, which is really crazy. So, I’m actually looking to … not looking to. We just planted 16,000 plants.

Matt Baum:
Oh man!

Michael Tullis:
Yeah.

Matt Baum:
That’s huge.

Michael Tullis:
Where we grow in our own this season.

Matt Baum:
Wow.

Michael Tullis:
We’re a little bit late into it, but I think it’ll still work out fine. Texas stays hot.

Matt Baum:
Yeah.

Michael Tullis:
It doesn’t cool off for most of the [crosstalk 00:24:05]

Matt Baum:
Not too much. No. Barring catastrophic climate change, which is a reality.

Michael Tullis:
My gosh, these days, anything can happen.

Matt Baum:
Tell me about it. So, do you have processing set up? 16,000 plants, that’s not exactly a small experiment you’re jumping into, is it?

Michael Tullis:
No. I tried to keep it as small as possible, but I’ve got some friends that talked me into crazy things.

Matt Baum:
We all do, I suppose.

Michael Tullis:
Right.

Matt Baum:
How are you guys going to go about processing that?

Michael Tullis:
I’m not quite sure. I know we’ve got a place to dry it, which is the scariest part. If you think about that many plants, that’s a big facility.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. That’s like an airport hangar, right?

Michael Tullis:
Yeah. Gosh, I hope we don’t need that much, but yeah, it’s really going to be a lot. So, we’ve got that figured out. As far as processing, we’ve got a few different options. Unfortunately, not many here in Texas.

Matt Baum:
Yeah.

Michael Tullis:
Yet. Hopefully, within the next couple of years, they’ll start filling in. Well, we’d like to just do something simple with it. If we need to take it and extract it with ethanol ourselves, hopefully not, we’d rather have a CO2 extraction, something a little more pure.

Matt Baum:
Sure.

Michael Tullis:
But, if we have to, and then get into our own products. If even the grow itself works, we’ll be able to get our own tinctures and our own salves made and hopefully our own smokable flower. We’re growing outdoors though, so it’s not really aiming for that this year.

Matt Baum:
Are there rules against that right now in Texas?

Michael Tullis:
Yeah. Yeah. There’s rules against a lot of stuff. Manufacturing and producing and even retail smokable, hemp I think right now is all really questionable.

Matt Baum:
So, it has to come from like greenhouses more or less.

Michael Tullis:
Yeah or out of state.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. So, do you truly are in the experimental phase right now? You’re like, “Let’s see if this stuff will even grow, basically.”

Michael Tullis:
Yeah. Yeah. So, really this whole thing started off as an experiment. A year and a half ago, I didn’t think I was going to be even successful doing retail much less have an opportunity to really dive into the hemp industry, really dive into growing and learning everything that I’ve learned. So, I guess at this point, I’m happy if everything just shuts down and it doesn’t work. From here on out, I learned a lot and I had a great time.

Matt Baum:
Fair enough. I like that attitude.

Michael Tullis:
I’ve surrounded myself with a lot of really good people.

Matt Baum:
It’s fantastic.

Michael Tullis:
Right. Thank you.

Matt Baum:
You’re like, “Oh, I learned a lot and I can take that away.” Good for you, man.

Michael Tullis:
Thank you. Thank you.

Matt Baum:
I’d be terrified person.

Michael Tullis:
I have a lot of really smart people around me too. I’ve got some brilliant people, so I’m not … maybe not as scared as I should be.

Matt Baum:
Fair enough. How many people you’re working with on this project?

Michael Tullis:
There’s four of us that are working on a project and then [inaudible 00:27:13] got a couple extra people helping out.

Matt Baum:
That is awesome. So, you said hopefully you would like to have it processed somewhere and then you want to turn it into your own tinctures, your own oils and topicals and whatnot.

Michael Tullis:
That’s the plan. That’s my plan for it anyways. We’ll see what everyone else wants to do.

Matt Baum:
Sure.

Michael Tullis:
But, we’re all moving in that direction. It’d be nice to be able to brand it and get our own products out there. So, we’re doing this … My store this kind of small batch from farm to table type product and I’d like to be able to do that for myself, integrate my own … in that direction as well, you know?

Matt Baum:
Then it’s world domination after that. Right?

Michael Tullis:
Yeah. If I can take care of my house first, but you should let me take over the world, we’ll have a good time.

Matt Baum:
Yeah, that’s important. Definitely. I’ve talked to people in LA and Minneapolis and Seattle, but not a lot of small town hemp retailers out there right now. So, it’s cool that something like this can even work in Lubbock.

Michael Tullis:
Yeah. I thought so too. Hopefully, it stays working.

Matt Baum:
Yeah, man. I hope the best for you. I appreciate the flower that you sent me. It was fantastic, by the way. I really enjoyed it.

Michael Tullis:
Really? Yeah, I’m glad you liked it.

Matt Baum:
Definitely.

Michael Tullis:
Glad you liked it.

Matt Baum:
I’ll have links to Michael’s Early Hemp site in the notes of this episode. I was really fortunate and glad that I could get two stories from Texas, one that’s kind of weird and hopefully turns out to be good and one that just is good. A small business run by a local proprietor who’s trying to spread the word through education and quality products. I think it really illustrates how somebody who cares about hemp and CBD and does their homework and works with the right people and seeks to educate their local populace can succeed no matter where they are. I hope if you’re listening, you’ll throw a click Michael’s way and at least check out his site.

Black Lives Matter: Final thoughts from Matt

That is it for another episode of the Ministry of Hemp podcast. Thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting. If you haven’t had a chance yet, please head over to Patreon\ministryofhemp and become a ministry of hemp insider. It will get you early access to our articles, extra content, podcast extras and more importantly, it helps us spread the good word of hemp.
If you dig the show and you believe in what we’re doing, please help out. If you can’t, that’s fine too. You can write a review of this show or leave it a star rating on your podcast app. It really does help to get this information to other people. If you need more Ministry of Hemp, you can follow us on Twitter, on Facebook, we’re everywhere on social media at ministryofhemp\ministryofhemp, and we’re always publishing amazing stories over at ministryofhemp.com. Like a story about hemp masks that are offering sustainable personal safety during the COVID-19 crisis.
Now, I know we’re trying to return to work and return to life and whatnot, but you still need to wear a mask. If you want to do so and make a statement and do it sustainably, why not wear a mask made of hemp fabric. There’s also a great post about how to maintain focus while working at home without guzzling gallons of coffee, which is something I am very guilty of.
At the Ministry of Hemp, we believe that an accessible world is a better world for everyone. So, we will have a full written transcript of this show in the show notes for this episode. Before I end the show with my usual sign off, I want to say that the Ministry of Hemp and myself stand with Black Lives Matter and stand with the protestors and support everyone that is out there right now fighting the good fight, but please, please take care of yourself. COVID-19 is still very much a reality. So, please wear a mask, wash your hands, take care of yourself, take care of others and make good decisions, will you? This is Matt Baum with the Ministry of Hemp podcast signing off.

The post Texas Hemp Stories: Will New Regulations Endanger Texas Hemp? appeared first on Ministry of Hemp.

More people than ever are interested in growing hemp now that the crop is legal. An amendment to the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp after decades of prohibition. Even though the Department of Agriculture didn’t issue formal hemp growing guidelines until late October, interest in the crop is already booming.

We’ll have a closer look at the new USDA hemp farming guidelines in an upcoming article. First we wanted to take a look at the past year of hemp growing, as reflected in the number of hemp growing licenses issued.

According to a report by Vote Hemp, U.S. states issued 16,877 hemp growing licenses in 2019, across 34 states, for a total of 511,442 licensed acres. From these numbers, we can learn a lot about the state of hemp in America, and what’s going right or wrong. 

Hemp growing licenses up over 400% since 2018

The increase in hemp growing licenses reflects a massive increase in the number of hemp farmers and a growing awareness that hemp could be a profitable commodity crop. Vote Hemp reported a 455% increase over 2018 in the amount of acres licensed for legal hemp growing.

The requirements for hemp licensing vary a great deal from state to state. Many still follow guidelines established under provisional hemp growing programs that began in 2014. Vermont hemp growing licenses are available to anyone that can pay a $25.00 fee, while other states require would-be farmers to jump through many more bureaucratic hoops. 13 states legalized hemp growing in 2019. These new states helped increase the number of hemp growing licenses.

Of course, not every licensed acre gets planted with hemp, and not all of that hemp will make it to harvest. Some farmers will license more acres than they need. The best laid plans often go awry, and some people may have jumped in without a fully formed plan.

“I never want to see anyone lose money but a lot of people didn’t do their homework” said Eric Steenstra, president of Vote Hemp. “The people that rushed in without a clear plan, there’s going to be a lot of them that don’t succeed.”

Vote Hemp estimates that only 230,000 acres of hemp will actually get planted in 2019. Only about 50-60% of that will end up harvested. In the end, we could see 125,000 acres or more harvested. That’s significant growth from 2018, when farmers harvested under 80,000 acres of hemp, but still far less hemp than the number of hemp growing licenses might suggest.

From bad seeds to hot hemp, problems abound for hemp farmers

Montana alone issued hemp growing licenses for over 100,000 acres in 2019.

“Thank god they did not grow that much,” said Geoff Whaling, chairman of the National Hemp Association. Farmers planted about a tenth of that total, only to have almost all of it destroyed by an early frost.

Other problems started even earlier.

“I never want to see anyone lose money but a lot of people didn’t do their homework.”

Eric Steenstra, President of Vote Hemp

“Many farmers are reporting bad seed germination percentages, and it all starts with the seed,” wrote Jane Pinto, founder of First Crop, in an email. First Crop is a public benefit company dedicated to building communities and global health through hemp.

Pinto elaborated that farmers and the industry as a whole lack access to the right seeds and the right knowledge to successfully grow and use hemp after decades of prohibition.

Even when farmers successfully grow their hemp, they can have difficulty harvesting or selling their products. Processing facilities and equipment may not be available in every area. Some varieties of hemp can grow in tall, bamboo-like stalks that are taller than any human, which makes harvest time into a unique challenge.

Another factor can be the amount of THC in the hemp. Recreational or medical forms of psychoactive cannabis contain levels of 15% and up. Legal industrial hemp contains 0.3% THC, or less. Under the new USDA guidelines, farmers must destroy plants that test higher, known as hot hemp. If farmers’ plants test at 0.5% or higher, they could even be banned from growing hemp or face more serious consequences. 

Looking beyond CBD hemp

One thing we can’t tell from hemp growing licenses are what kinds of hemp are being grown. Different strains of hemp can have different uses. Some are grown for seed, others for CBD, for fiber (which can be made into textiles), or for the woody core, also known as the hurd.

Currently, almost all the hemp in the U.S. is grown for CBD, and much of it is difficult to use for other purposes. According to Steenstra, there are probably less than 10,000 acres of hemp grown in the U.S. for anything other than cannabidiol extraction.

While CBD is likely to become a billion dollar industry this year, it’s not likely that every farmer’s CBD hemp will find a buyer. In fact, there’s still unsold CBD from the 2018 growing season. This hurts farmers. It also forces hemp producers to import raw materials, from hemp seeds for food to hurds for hempcrete. That keeps prices prohibitively high for many consumers.

Experts like Joy Beckerman, president of the Hemp Industries Association, are recommending farmers “pivot” towards growing other strains as a way of dealing with overproduction.

She believes the CBD market will inevitably become saturated. “Do some little variety trials for grain and fiber, away from your extract hemp.”

Supporting smaller hemp farmers

The disparity between hemp growing licenses and the actual amount of hemp grown shows a worrying instability in the new hemp industry.

One major factor is the growth of larger, corporate-dominated farmers and producers. As the market grows, it’s inevitable some farmers, producers, and brands will fall.

“The farmers are the heroes here, because without them putting the plants in the ground we don’t have anything.”

Joy Beckerman, President of the Hemp Industries Association

“The people that rushed in without a clear plan, there’s going to be a lot of them that don’t succeed,” said Steenstra.

Even so, all the experts we spoke with suggested there’s a place for smaller producers that create quality products from the best available soil, using sustainable, regenerative agriculture.

 “I see it as an ideal rotational crop for small and medium sized farmers,” Whaling said.

Large or small, it’s important for farmers to recognize that the U.S. is rediscovering the best ways to grow hemp. Bringing this ancient crop into the modern world will take time.

“We [are] still in a transition period and a research phase,” Whaling told us, “and we should be in that phase for the next four or five years.”

“Together, we are all walking through the first year of the rebirth of hemp,” Pinto wrote, praising in particular the bravery of these early farmers.

Beckerman agreed. “The farmers are the heroes here, because without them putting the plants in the ground we don’t have anything, and they’re really the ones taking all the risks.”

The future of hemp growing in the U.S.

Building a healthy, sustainable hemp industry will depend on supporting the farmers. They need help learning to grow and harvest, and support to find buyers who offer fair prices for their crops.

“Farmers also need to be able to trust that the hemp industry will continue to invest in the infrastructure needed to produce products from all parts of this incredible plant,” wrote Pinto.

Companies like First Crop, which emphasize building a secure marketplace for growers, will be vital. We’ll also likely see more farmers forming into cooperatives. That will enable more new farmers to enter the market, allow farmers and producers to pool their resources, and ensure better opportunities to bring all forms of hemp to market.

“I would really like to see a model where family farmers are able to produce half an acre or an acre of this and do it efficiently and get help,” said Steenstra.

The post More People Got Hemp Growing Licenses In 2019, But How Much Hemp Really Grew? appeared first on Ministry of Hemp.

We want to hear from you too. Send us your questions and you might hear them answered on future shows like this one!

Send us your written questions to us on Twitter, Facebook, email matt@ministryofhemp.com, or call us and leave a message at 402-819-6417. Keep in mind that phone number is for hemp questions only and any other inquiries for Ministry of Hemp should be sent to info@ministryofhemp.com.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Ministry of Hemp Podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast app. If you really want to help us out, we’d love for you to rate or review the show.

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More about hemp and the law

Here’s some resources from our archives about hemp law and transporting hemp:

• Court Rulings Enable Sending Industrial Hemp By Mail
• Four Faced Felony Charges After Oklahoma Hemp Seizure
• What The 2018 Farm Bill Means For US Hemp & Agriculture

Transporting hemp: Episode transcript

Below you’ll find the full written transcript for this episode:

Matt Baum: Hello again. My name is Matt Baum and you are listening to The Ministry of Hemp Podcast. And today on the show we are talking about interstate commerce, imports and exports specifically, you guessed it, the importing and moving of hemp. The 2018 Farm Bill all but decriminalized hemp, removing it from its Schedule I drug status, and realizing that this is a cannabis plant with less than 0.03% THC, which means it can’t get you high in a nutshell. So now that hemp is legal, farmers, truckers and retailers all live in a state of nirvana where we’re celebrating hemp and everyone is happy, right? Well, not exactly. Currently hemp still lives in sort of a gray area while the FDA and USDA figures out how we’re going to define it based on how much THC is present, based on what type of isolate is present. There’s so much that goes into it. And lucky for us, I found somebody much smarter than me to explain the challenges in something that should be simple, moving hemp around the United States

Meet Frank Robison.

Frank Robison: So like it… My name’s Frank Robison. I’m a cannabis attorney, most of my client base are in the hemp business or in hemp. I have some sort of nexus to the hemp industry at various levels, from growers to processors to entities that make and sell hemp products. And some of those clients actually are vertically oriented and they do all of the… They do everything from growth processing, product development to retail sales. I have been practicing in this area of law for about seven years. I started practicing in with ‘cannabis law’ as very interestingly a state of Colorado, University of Colorado attorney. And I was very… I was immediately attracted to-

Matt Baum: Frank’s a pretty amazing guy and he’s exactly who we want fighting for hemp in this country, but he also speaks legalese. He’s a lawyer and he’s good at what he does. So I will break in here and there during our interview to spell some stuff out, break down some acronyms and just clarify things a little bit.

Frank Robison: … regulation. As I was advising in the export control space, I would inevitably get questions about importations.

Matt Baum: Sure.

Frank Robison: And I figured the best way to have a crash course in importations was to become a US customs broker because [crosstalk]

Matt Baum: Yeah, why not? You got time. It’s not like you have a full time job. I mean go for it.

Frank Robison: And so I’m very much of an overachiever in that sort sense. And so because becoming a customs broker is, it’s quite a difficult task to do between the US Department of Homeland Security background check and the test you take, it’s quite a process to become a US customs broker. And the tests you take has about a 20% passage rate where the average bar exam test has somewhere between 60 maybe 70% passing rate.

Matt Baum: Okay. So that’s 80% failure?

Frank Robison: Yes. So you have an 80% failure rate on the US customs broker test.

Matt Baum: Good Lord.

Frank Robison: Yeah. Yeah. It’s very difficult. And it’s a highly regulated industry. In fact, it’s more regulated, from my perspective, than other legal industry and it’s regulated… And I think that’s appropriate because you have the tools, you have the knowledge, you have the understanding of how to clear products through customs.

Matt Baum: Sure.

Frank Robison: Go with a civic code, with civic code that’s associated with any given type of merchandise.

Matt Baum: What Frank is saying is it’s very hard to import or export anything in this country. And when you add in the fact that you’re importing or exporting hemp, a product that is effectively been illegal in the United States for the last 75 years, the USDA and FDA still haven’t quite figured out how we’re going to do this. It’s pretty damn difficult.

Frank Robison: FDA has a wide range of views on whether or not it’s admissible. And when I say a wide range of views is the FDA agent in Cincinnati, Ohio may have a different view than the FDA agent-

Matt Baum: Of course.

Frank Robison: … managing the port in Denver, Colorado.

Matt Baum: And there’s no fixed line-

Frank Robison: And Denver is also a port even though it’s-

Matt Baum: … there’s no fixed line or numbers right now. There’s no standard so everybody just sort of is kind of calling their shot.

Frank Robison: There is in a way. So right now what I’m seeing is that they’re marching to a beat of messages… The messages that the FDA has communicated to the general public after the stakeholder meeting in Maryland at the end of May, and that is consistent with the farm… and is very much consistent with the Farm Bill. It’s very much consistent with the FDA’s view over the past few years. But the message is pretty consistent. CBD is not a… so CBD specifically may not be put into food according to the FDA or dietary supplements because it would at the time when the FA features first came out, it was an investigative new drug. Now it is a drug in the form of an I-L-X.

Matt Baum: Right. Now, just recently, The US Food and Drug Administration, the USDA approved Epidiolex, which is a cannabidiol or CBD oral solution for the treatment of seizures associated with two severe forms of epilepsy. There were some tests. It’s proven to work, but now that means that CBD, it can be considered a pharmaceutical drug. That can complicate things a bit.

Frank Robison: And a drug is per se if included in a food or dietary supplement an adulterant and you cannot put adulterants into food or into dietary supplements. In my view, this is an extreme position to be taking, particularly with respect to cannabinoids, including CBD that are found in whole hemp extract or full spectrum or even broad spectrum. It’s when you start getting closer to isolate, I think that the FDA has an argument that it is similar to Epidiolex and may or may not be permissible to import into the United States or export respectively from the United States to any given country. But again, I just think it’s an argument in many cases it’s just misguided.

Matt Baum: Let me ask you, is it only because in the sense of an isolet, they’re saying that this isolet does one thing and therefore the FDA says, well then it is acting as a drug because it is being applied to do one thing only as opposed to a broad spectrum?

Frank Robison: No.

Matt Baum: Is it that simple?

Frank Robison: The comments that I’ve seen directly from FDA agents in the field have been more even simple than that because it contains CBD. CBD is a drug. A drug is an adulterant when it is included in food or dietary supplement. It’s not because you’re making the structure function claim. It’s not because you have non-compliant packaging. It’s because-

Matt Baum: Purely definition, that’s it.

Frank Robison: … It’s purely definitional. That is correct. And where I see the seizures happening, it’s when it’s packaged in a finished form, like when it’s packaged in a consumer-ready form. Or I also see seizures with respect to isolate. I think that the FDA has an, again, an argument, it has an opinion that there’s some basis to their opinions, some basis to their argument with respect to dietary supplements and food that are consumer-ready. I disagree with them strongly on many levels.

I don’t think they have a basis to be seizing isolate. It makes absolutely no sense to me when it’s packaged, for example, in a five kilo container and it’s been [inaudible 00:08:16] for the processing. It’s not consumer-ready. It could be used for many applications. And if you look at the definition of industrial hemp under the 2018 Farm Bill, it includes any cannabinoid.

Matt Baum: Right?

Frank Robison: CBD cannabinoid, cannabinoid is not a scheduled substance. Epidiolex is scheduled. Epidiolex as a drug is scheduled, but it has a specific manufacturing process. It has a specific dose. It’s encapsulated. Is a specific product that is intended to treat a specific medical condition. It is extremely, from my perspective, distinct from a sack of isolet and it’s just not even close to anything like a food product or a supplement product that contains a broad spectrum of cannabinoids back from the-

Matt Baum: Right. We’ll talk about the difference between-

Frank Robison: … from the whole planet [inaudible]

Matt Baum: … a drug…

For those of you who don’t know what we’re talking about, the DEA schedules drugs, all drugs, not just illegal drugs, but all of them into five different categories. Number one being the most illegal and abusive and addictive. And that’s where hemp and marijuana lived for a long time, right alongside heroin and cocaine. The further away you get from one, Schedule V, for example, where you’ll find Pepto-Bismol and Acetaminophen and analgesics, stuff like that, that people aren’t going to abuse. That’s probably where Epidiolex is going to live. But don’t quote me on this, I’m not certain.

So where these seizures, the seizures you’re talking about, are these international seizures or are these national or is it both?

Frank Robison: So the seizures that with respect to CBD are always international. So it’s either outbound out of going out of the United States or something coming into the United States. Generally, though I am aware of one a seizure that was at a checkpoint, and I can’t remember if it was New Mexico or Southern California when we had a CBD company, a CBD ‘company’ just driving near the southern border. CBP had a checkpoint for immigrants-

Matt Baum: CBP is the Customs and Border Patrol.

Frank Robison: … that was focused on immigrants. The truck, pickup truck was full of hemp-based products and that truck was, the merchandise in that truck was seized and that was not intended to be exported from the United States. So I am aware of situation.

Matt Baum: But it’s still drugs as far as they’re concerned. They’re Like, oh-

Frank Robison: What’s that?

Matt Baum: … it’s obviously drugs. They’re drug dealers. Stop them.

Frank Robison: Yeah. And it’s really unfortunate when something like that happens because then all of a sudden, certain data gets put into a database.

Matt Baum: Right.

Frank Robison: That tag follows people involved in that transaction for a long time and that’s just not-

Matt Baum: It’s not fair.

Frank Robison: … it’s fundamentally unfair.

Matt Baum: It’s just not fair. Right.

Frank Robison: Yeah. It’s a depravation of your constitutional rights particularly, your right to due process among others. And so you know you have a right to, fundamental constitutional right of noticing the opportunity to be heard and to be seizing a product inside the United States and not providing someone with that right is just from a lawyer’s perspective, it goes back to just the travesty of justice. Why we become lawyers, [inaudible] we want people to have their property, their life or their liberty taken without an opportunity to be heard.

Matt Baum: So let me ask you, is a major impediment here, is the major problem the way that the FDA is defining this or is it more of the way that say local law, law enforcement is carrying out what they feel is their job? Or is it a mixture of both?

Frank Robison: Well, with respect to the interstate transport of hemp and hemp products, it’s local law enforcement and the fact that the federal government from, in my view, has only issued limited guidance and we’re in a period where the federal government hasn’t promulgated rules, hasn’t conducted work. Although they have conducted some, they haven’t conducted readily accessible and easily understandable workshops with respect to the 2018 Farm Bill. And I think they’re hesitant to do so because regulations haven’t been promulgated. That said regulations are, pursuant to my understanding, imminent. And when I say imminent, I’m talking this fall or early winter of 2019.

Matt Baum: Oh, that’s fantastic.

Frank Robison: Yeah, it is been moved up from its original, it’s going to take about a year to do to again, to like again, I think the last I heard was something in September or October should be provided, should be so some sort of emergency rule making should be enacted by up by then.

Matt Baum: And at that point there’ll be an education that is basically handed down to law enforcement. So when you do pull someone over with flat like hemp flower or hemp stalks, they can say, here’s our process, here’s what we do, here’s the way we should test it. I mean, is that all in there?

Frank Robison: Hopefully. That’s to be seen. And so what we could see and again, at the local level, what we could see so distinguishing it from the conversation, the parallel conversation we’re having about the international seizures and the international issues that we’re seeing with the import and export of of hemp, which is an agricultural commodity. In any event we’ll set that aside, but that’s actually applicable to the local issues.

Matt Baum: Absolutely.

Frank Robison: Like you should hopefully in the regulatory process you’ll see something about testing standardization in field-testing, but you might not. We may not see that and that might come down through informal policy statements, that might come down through educational workshops. That might not come down at all because states have a right to regulate hemp more stringently than they do, than the federal government. And the 2018 Farm Bill that says they do not have the right to impede the interstate transport of hemp.

And so you might see some confusion because there’s two provisions within the 2018 Farm Bill that should be easy to understand but may not be easy to understand for people that want to consider hemp marijuana, which is not. Hemp is hemp and marijuana is marijuana, but it should be easy to understand that states may have legal frameworks that are more strict than the 2018 Farm Bill, but they are not under any circumstance allowed to restrict the interstate transport of hemp.

And so how that unfolds is to be seen as you mentioned, as you questioned, hopefully that is clarified through rulemaking. I fear that it will not be, and it will be clarified through court cases-

Matt Baum: Of course.

Frank Robison: … legal actions.

Matt Baum: … Of course, because there’s going to be holed out. There’s going to be people that say, I don’t care. You’re not bringing marijuana through my state and-

Frank Robison: Judicial precedent. Exactly, correct.

Matt Baum: And you can say as many times as you want, it’s not marijuana but until they can sit down and listen.

Frank Robison: And hopefully they listen to the industry and industry stakeholders about testing procedures, uniform testing procedures in the field, if any. And when I say if any, I think that it’s appropriate that so long as the state of origin that has a agricultural pilot program as they’re called today, under the 2014 Farm Bill or a agricultural plan under 2018 Farm Bill. So long as they have appropriate documentation from the state that complies with the states, state law and regulations indicating that the hemp trust shipment is compliant with that program or plan respectively then local law enforcement shouldn’t be allowed to test it in the field because there is so much variance between the tests. I mean it could go, it can even vary from the same piece of machinery to the same piece of machinery, the same testing technologies to the same testing technology because the way that machine is calibrated or because of the understanding of the user of the machine is lacking.

They might not understand how to use such a sophisticated piece of machinery. That said, there are people developing field tests that are supposedly quite accurate, but again, these are things that in my view, we’re putting a risk between point A and point B. Point A being the country where they hemp is grown, point B where the hemp is lawful to possess, manufacturer, process. Let’s just use an example from Kentucky to Colorado.

Matt Baum: Sure.

Frank Robison: We were putting in the hands of local law enforcement and particularly all those states, between Kentucky and Colorado, the potential to misapply what from my perspective should be clear federal law. Compliant hemp, hemp grown compliantly, products derived from hemp grown compliantly shouldn’t be stopped, shouldn’t give rise to legal jeopardy for anybody much less for a guy that’s getting paid 5,000 bucks to truck it from point A to point B. It’s absolutely unconscionable that an individual like that would spend time in jail.

Matt Baum: Now, let me ask you, which do you think is more difficult right now, importing hemp from out of the country and bringing it in or just moving hemp within the US?

Frank Robison: It depends on the form. And ironically when we’re talking about flower, I think the import and export of flower is relatively straightforward.

Matt Baum: Really?

Frank Robison: Yeah. The interstate transport of flower is relatively complex because it looks like, it smells like it’s cousin or we’ll just call it a distant cousin just to make sure [inaudible]

Matt Baum: Yeah, distant cousin.

Frank Robison: Hemp is not marijuana, hemp is not marijuana, but in any event to local law enforcement, it looks the same. I think most CBP, people that work with CBP at this point understand that hemp is not marijuana and there are ways to demonstrate and document that it is not so. And that said, getting back to the, switching gears, I know we’re bouncing back and forth between the interstate issues and the international issues. International issues really come into play with again, with as we were talking about earlier, with consumer-ready products. Products that are packaged with, by, for consumers that have CBD listed as an ingredient. And whether or not it’s a subset of the ingredient… within the ingredient list. When I say subset it’s going to say something like whole hemp extract and then it says something like parenthetical, you know CBD, CBN, or terpenes, or it just says CBD, products of that nature are quite regularly being seized.

Matt Baum: Let me ask you a question-

Frank Robison: And again… Yeah, go ahead.

Matt Baum: If you go to amazon.com right now and you search CBD, there are thousands of hits that you will get.

Frank Robison: It’s amazing.

Matt Baum: And I mean most of it is garbage. A lot of it even says it’s made with stems and whatnot, which isn’t even how you do it. How is Amazon selling all these products? And a lot of them look like from Chinese sellers. They have to be importing that stuff, right?

Frank Robison: So people are selling bill of sale to Amazon and Amazon’s buying it. I am very well aware of many, many entities that are selling that it’s derived from stalk and cells, because I look at these products on a regular basis-

Matt Baum: And it’s garbage.

Frank Robison: … because I’m also a bit aware of any one, yeah, they’re… I’m sorry?

Matt Baum: It’s pure garbage. I mean it’s just fake.

Frank Robison: Yeah. Well it’s either, if it is made from stalk and sterile seeds, it’s of very low quality as you say, garbage product, or they’re just plain and simply misrepresenting and that it’s made from flower and they’re getting it on Amazon and that’s their marketing shtick. And doing that would run a foul with Amazon’s policies. Amazon’s policies do state, seller’s policies do state that you cannot sell product from cannabis flower on I don’t remember the exact verbiage, it’s been a minute or more since I read the policy, but it’s something along the lines of you can’t sell flower. You are able to sell products derive from stalk and sterile seed. So people read the policy and then they market their product product according to their policy in order to get it approved on Amazon.

Matt Baum: So let me ask you, does that mean Amazon is, in your opinion, I’m not saying let’s damn them to hell, but does that mean Amazon is actively promoting the sale of a product that is completely bunk basically?

Frank Robison: I don’t think so. I think the better way to say that would be that the sellers that are on Amazon, that understand Amazon’s policy and they’re using it to their advantage to make sales.

Matt Baum: So it’s a bad policy and the sellers are using it basically?

Frank Robison: Yes. I don’t know if I want to call it a bad policy. I think it’s a… I don’t think it’s a surprising policy given the FDA’s rhetoric on CBD products, which I think is really, I think as one of the more unfortunate things that’s going on in the background of this wonderful moment of the 2018 Farm Bill where hemp is descheduled as it should have been 45, 50 years ago or more. It never should have been, well, let’s just say ever because it never should have been scheduled. But in any event it has been, it’s been long overdue the descheduling of hemp and Amazon has a policy that predates the 2018 Farm Bill that focuses in on the stalk and sterile seed component of the definition of marijuana that under The Controlled Substances Act, and people understand the policy and they navigate accordingly. Is that Amazons…, Is Amazon the customer, its seller police? I don’t think that’s their responsibility.

Matt Baum: No, no. And they’re playing it safe obviously. They can look and they don’t want this stuff seized, they want to make money on it and if they do it this way, it doesn’t get seized. The person that gets it is happy, you, they’re happy even though it might not be the best product.

Frank Robison: I think they need to believe they’re their sellers too. I mean, I don’t think they’re in a position where they can ‘police’ what their sellers are selling. I mean they need to rely upon the representations that their sellers are making. If someone makes a misrepresentation, I don’t think that it would be fair to put the burden on Amazon to go check the traceability, the lot traceability of those stalks and seeds for [inaudible 00:23:17]. I mean that would be an undue burden on a company like Amazon. That said, if it did, pursuant to their policy that products would probably be removed. But again, I think the policy is unfortunate. I think that we should embrace products that are made from cannabis, excuse me, hemp flowers.

Matt Baum: Right. It’s a bad policy. I mean, that’s what it comes down to.

Frank Robison: I think it’s a bad policy, but it nevertheless, it’s their policy.

Matt Baum: Right. And they’re doing-

Frank Robison: They have the right to make a policy.

Matt Baum: … Jeff Bezos has to cover his butt. I get it.

Frank Robison: I don’t know if it’s covering their butt, but I mean maybe it’s a matter of not having updated the policy since the 2018 Farm Bill or maybe it’s a matter of not wanting to update the policy until the FDA clarifies the waters that it’s muddy.

Matt Baum: Exactly. Okay. Let me ask you one more question on this. What is the one thing that could change tomorrow that makes your job easier as an importer, exporter, moving stuff wearing around and interstate commerce? What’s the one thing that you would like to see change?

Frank Robison: Can I get one on both sides of the fence, Matt?

Matt Baum: Absolutely, absolutely. Please, please.

Frank Robison: So, the one thing on the international import and export of goods that I would like to see changed is that the FDA would acknowledge that CBD that is found in a whole hemp extract is a distinct compound, is distinct, excuse me, from CBD in the form of Epidiolex. It is just quite simply not the drug Epidiolex and that to me is a just bluntly a no-brainer. If you look at the World Health Organization, still the World Anti-Doping Association almost two years ago deemed CBD not to be a regulated substance. The World Health Organization has deemed a whole hemp extracts in CBD in particular not to pose a public health issue.

And so collectively you take those, you take issues like various established, credible international bodies and you also look at the difference between Epidiolex and what people are putting into food or supplement like products, I mean it’s just night, it’s just as you said generally, it’s night and day. It’s apples and oranges. So on one hand you have a benign substance. Many entities aren’t putting that CBD isolate. Even if we did agree with the fact that CBD isolate in itself was the same thing, assuming for the sake of argument that CBD isolate is substantially equivalent to the drug Epidiolex. I mean that’s not what people are putting into-

Matt Baum: Exactly.

Frank Robison: … that’s not what many stake holders are putting into their products. They’re putting in whole hemp extract, full-spectrum type of oils. And so I would like to see some sort of FDA rhetoric on that so that customs and the FDA officials that work with customs on a regular basis don’t seize products that are packaged for retail human consumption. It just doesn’t, from my perspective, make sense so long as that product is compliant with the laws of country of importation. And so you have products being seized that are being exported from the United States that are perfectly compliant with the country of importation’s laws. And that’s just creating…. It’s causing people to endure costs to clarify those situations with customs.

And so some, again, so to get back to your question, some sort of simple clarification with respect to products that are containing whole hemp full-spectrum extracts. That said, I don’t think, and from a practical perspective, the FDA is willing to go all the way to isolates, but I would like to see that as well. I think it’s in the range of things that they should feel comfortable doing clarifying their view on whole hemp extracts.

Matt Baum: Right. So what about here at home?

Frank Robison: Interstate… I’m sorry, go.

Matt Baum: I said what about here at home? Interstate?

Frank Robison: So interstate here at home, clear guidance. That’s said, we saw fairly clear guidance statement from the General Council of the United States Department of Agriculture, which was very welcome approximately I would think at this two months ago. I don’t know the date off the top of my head. That letter, that opinion from the General Council of the United States Department of Agriculture was about five months overdue, but to its credit it came, so he clarified certain issues. I would like to see additional clarification with respect to the interstate transport of hemp and hemp-based products come out of the United States Department of Agriculture to ensure that nobody’s ever sees another day in jail because of a misunderstanding at the local law enforcement level.

Matt Baum: Because of a completely legal substance. That’s like arresting someone for moving corn.

Frank Robison: It’s like arresting someone for moving soybeans or corn.

Matt Baum: Exactly.

Frank Robison: That’s correct. Or even let’s go to a product that has a high concentration of terpenes. Let’s go to perhaps akinesia, St John’s-wort, [inaudible 00:28:31], products like this. So just very frustratingly at the local level, a field test is a litmus test. It’s very much akin to a pregnancy test.

It’s either you’re pregnant or you’re not. And what triggers a field test is not only, the [inaudible] presence of THC, though that does trigger a field test, but it also can be the presence of other cannabinoids and the presence of terpenes that are commonly found in cannabis. And so all of a sudden you’re using a field test that is inherently unreliable to field-test products, hemp and other hemp products in the field. And local law enforcement is using that positive litmus pregnancy test to establish probable cause and probable cause should not be established to search and seize anyone’s merchandise for an inherently unreliable field test for an agricultural commodity-

Matt Baum: Not to mention-

Frank Robison: … although agricultural commodities could also trigger it.

Matt Baum: … And not to mention the fact that we’re asking the highway to patrol to be chemists at the same time. Like this is not their job. This is not what they do.

Frank Robison: We’re not. And we want them… And that gets back to a point we were talking about earlier, which I think is the way to address this issue is to rely upon state of where…

Matt Baum: Frank and I wandered off on a few tangents after this, but it was wonderful to talk to him. And it’s one of those things you don’t think about. There was a recent case in Oklahoma with a trucker that was pulled over and arrested for hauling hemp and spent four weeks in jail. And the good news is Frank has some good news about that. I can’t talk about it yet because there’s something that’s going to happen next week, but we’ll revisit that on the show. I want to thank him so much for coming on here and thank you to everybody that’s been listening to the show and calling us with your questions. You can always call us and leave us a message at (402) 819-6417 and leave us your hemp related question. We answered them right here on the show. My buddy Kit and I just did it last week and we’re going to do it again soon.

If you dig what you’ve heard here, please leave us a rating or write as a review even. It really helps to make the show more discoverable for people that are looking for this information and it also makes me feel pretty good because I produced this whole thing. You can find us on Twitter, @MinistryofHemp, on Facebook, \ministryofhemp, and you can always email me, matt@ministryofhemp.com with any of your questions or anything you’d like to hear or even some creative criticism. I’d just like to hear from you, the listeners. For now, this is Matt Baum with the Ministry of Hemp saying, take care of yourself, take care of others, and make good decisions, will you? This is the Ministry of Hemp Podcast signing off.

The post Transporting Hemp: Interstate Commerce and International Hemp appeared first on Ministry of Hemp.

One of the biggest challenges within the CBD industry is getting people to open their minds to the medical benefits of hemp. How is CBD Luxe addressing these problems?

By providing the market with a product which looks all the same as anyone might use for their medical condition — a CBD inhaler.

Before creating CBD Luxe, co-owner William Spilo snowboarded professionally and worked as an international heli-skiing guide. He suffered multiple injuries through his work over the years — some reaching traumatic levels. After being stuffed full of pain medications such as NSAIDS (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), he was introduced to CBD.

“I was on a pretty heavy regimen of NSAIDs every day and I was seeing if there were alternatives to that,” Spilo explained. “I got some CBD mint and I couldn’t believe the effects. So, I did one line of test runs and handed it out to all the professional athletes I work with and the results were astonishing.”

We talked with Spilo in order to learn more about his company’s newest line of products, CBD inhalers.

WHY CREATE CBD INHALERS?

“We’re trying to broaden the consumer base. It’s called a meter dose inhaler as we want to give precision dosing so the consumer knows exactly how much they’re getting every time. We’re also providing a comfortable, safe delivery system.”

CBD Luxe makes their inhalers from the same FDA approved material used for asthma inhalers. Each CBD inhaler contains 1100mg of micellized CBD. Micellization is the process of formulating molecules into colloidal solutions. This means the CBD is evenly distributed throughout, allowing each dose to be the same as the last.

CBD Luxe offers 4 different CBD inhalers with different natural extracts to help consumers achieve different experiences. There’s also a pure CBD inhaler with no additional ingredients. This full spectrum hemp oil offers users over 200 doses per inhaler.

The 2018 Farm Bill opened doors for innovating products such as these inhalers. As time progresses, we’re bound to continue seeing novel ideas within products, mixtures, and other uses for hemp. As we discussed these inhalers with Spilo, we kept these thoughts in mind to get a taste for the future of CBD.

A MARKET STILL IN THE MAKING

“When we [CBD Luxe] started in early 2016, there weren’t many CBD products on the market,” Spilo told us.

Not to mention, there remained a complete lack of public knowledge as to what CBD was. In the eyes of the federal government, hemp was still considered a Schedule I drug.

Yet, people like Spilo not only saw an opportunity but also a misunderstood medicine which could help millions of people. With that, he figured, “we’d make a higher quality product out there that was a little more targeted for what CBD can do for the consumer.”

Since the CBD industry is so constantly evolving, there are a number of problems which still need to be addressed. One of these is accurate labeling. Not only do they test every ingredient which comes into their facility but they also provide clear labels about what’s in their product. Furthermore, CBD Luxe is committed to providing the user with all the information about what’s in their CBD.

When Spilo entered the market, he noticed there weren’t many companies offering molecular isolates. This is when CBD is extracted into a water-soluble form. Though there were some products, Spilo and his team found some of these companies had “metal content and impurities in the CBD were at risk to the consumer.”

Just as with any responsible company, CBD Luxe tests all their products with a third-party lab to ensure accuracy and purity.

CREATING A REPUTABLE CBD MARKET

As more companies with the same business models came into the market, people inevitably gravitated towards the hemp industry.

“Still, we also felt we could enhance the effects of CBD by using botanicals,” Spilo recalled. “For vape pens, we’re using essential oils. For consumables and inhalers, we’re using full botanical extract. All of our ingredients are organic and non-GMO — except for the CBD itself because we have no certification for that yet. So, we just felt we’d make a higher quality product out there that was a little more targeted towards what CBD could actually do for the consumer.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuLYnZDB991/

It’s thanks to efforts as such that the acreage of hemp cultivation was able to triple within a one-year period. Thanks to federal legalization, the industry is looking very optimistic. With that, questions begin to arise about the future of CBD.

PREDICTIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF CBD

Understandably, not every void within the CBD marketplace has been filled. As this industry continues to build itself, it’s inevitable for more problems needing to be addressed. It helps to take a look at how the market is going now in order to predict these complications before they arise.

“I think right now there are quite a few good products out there,” Spilo mentions. “I do think we have to watch out for the level of purity and the content. So, what is the CBD they’re putting in there? And how much? It’s important to have an understanding of what you want out of the product and what you’re looking for. We’d like to help steer you towards a more specific product.

“Since the passing of the Farm Bill in late 2018, the industry is really flooded. I mean, we’ve really gained a lot of recognition.”

As expected, this flooded market has a lot of questions. Now it’s the responsibility of companies such as CBD Luxe to not only answer these questions but create products which respond to the public’s growing desire.

CBD Luxe has been experimenting with their CBD inhaler formulas for some time now. And they’re constantly continuing these experiments to provide new experiences of CBD.

If you’re interested in learning more about these inhalers and/or purchasing one, you can check out the product’s page here.

Out of curiosity, we asked if CBD Luxe had any further innovative products in mind. Spilo’s response:

“There are a few that we’re working on, but …” Spilo laughed, “… we don’t want to release anything we aren’t sure of to market.”

The post CBD Inhalers: Innovation In The CBD Market From CBD Luxe appeared first on Ministry of Hemp.

https://twitter.com/ShieldPatriot/status/1088511291851976706

Four people face felony charges after Oklahoma police seized hemp bound from Kentucky to Colorado.

The four are charged with drug trafficking after cops found 18,000 pounds of hemp in the back of their tractor-trailer. Police from Pawhuska, Oklahoma pulled the shippers over at 3:00am on January 9, claiming they ran a red light. When police stuck their noses in the vehicle, they smelled a strong odor which greatly resembled psychoactive cannabis (“marijuana”), leading to the charges.

The truck was transporting hemp from Kentucky to Colorado on behalf of Panacea Life Sciences, a CBD brand. As readers of our site know, the 2018 Farm Bill made hemp legal nationwide when it became law in December. The new law specifically protects interstate commerce. Therefore, the drivers were following the law.

However, two of the four still remain in jail as police insist that they don’t know whether the truck contained legal hemp or illegal marijuana. The four accused all pled not guilty at their initial hearing.

LAW ENFORCEMENT’S BIG FLAW

The Farm Bill makes it clear that there shouldn’t be any legal battle at all. Hemp is legal and these men were in total compliance with the law. Yet, as we’re witnessing, law enforcement continues to insist these men deserve to face charges.

We talked with James “Jamie” Baumgartner, the president of Panacea Life Sciences about the incident.

“To be honest, I personally tend to trust law enforcement,” Baumgartner proclaimed. “But I don’t know if they really know what they’re doing here.”

One source of Baumgartner’s uncertainty: the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sent the hemp to a laboratory to do a binary test. The purpose was to discover whether or not there would be THC in the product.

“Of course, it’s going to test positive cause there is 0.3 percent THC in the product,” Baumgartner explained.

Under the law, hemp is fully legal as long as it contains less than 0.3 percent THC. He continued:

“Then they did another binary test that they [DEA] claim is definitive to show it’s marijuana, by taking a look at the product under a microscope. Which is the first time I’ve ever heard of that.”

Obviously, the latter test can’t confirm anything considering the fact that hemp and marijuana look nearly identical — they’re two forms of the same plant! As Baumgartner puts it, the only way to really tell the difference between the two is through, “a cannabinoid profile.”

Until the cannabis is properly tested, the four men will remain in custody. There’s only one major issue, as Baumgartner states:

“[Oklahoma law enforcement] wants to send it through Washington D.C. to be tested. But with the government shutdown, that laboratory is not operational right now.”

FIGHTING BACK AFTER OKLAHOMA POLICE SEIZE HEMP SHIPMENT

Baumgartner is pushing for the material to be tested properly even with the complication of a government shutdown. He and his team at Panacea have argued with police that they should, “find a neutral laboratory.”

“We’ve suggested they use the Colorado Department of Agriculture … to determine the THC content of the material.”

Unfortunately, there’s been little “open dialogue in terms of resolving the situation.”

Rather, law enforcement is taking matters into their own hands and, as mentioned above, it doesn’t seem like they quite know what’s going on.

Baumgartner told us he has never run into problems with the law before. Caught off guard by this unexpected seizure, he’s frustrated that police haven’t responded to his concerns. This is especially overwhelming considering some of these men have families who don’t know what’s going to happen.

Furthermore, Baumgartner predicted the bust could cost Panacea $1 million. Of course, he hopes that once Oklahoma law enforcement realizes the plants are hemp and therefore legal, there’s a good chance they’ll get the shipment back. However, then Panacea must worry about any damages which may have come about through this whole process.

“If we can verify that it has not been damaged then we rock’n’roll with it,” Baumgartner said. “If it has been damaged so that we cannot use it, then we’ll seek recourse through civil litigation.”

THE ANTI-HEMP STIGMA CONTINUES

Obviously, the stigma against hemp is far from gone. The fact that this whole mess is even happening might seem absurd to many within the hemp industry and community. However, when it comes to the general public, they still don’t see the difference between hemp and “marijuana.” 

“When I take a look at this whole situation, our number one priority is to make sure these individuals are not charged and are able to go back to their families and their lives, “Baumgartner said.

“Number two is to get our hemp back. And I’m really hoping we have a positive end to this story.”

He added:

“I hope we have a better understanding of rules and regulations. About how to handle hemp shipments in the future. I mean the last thing I really wanted to do was offer an interview for your publication about this problem. I’d rather be talking about the beneficial health properties of hemp.”

Panacea Life Sciences’ staff asked us to share this GoFundMe fundraiser for the arrested hemp drivers, and encouraged our readers to contribute. 

The post Four People Face Felony Charges After Oklahoma Police Seize Hemp Shipment appeared first on Ministry of Hemp.

Right before the holidays, Fort Collins, Colorado resident Joy Smith had attempted to log into her CBD products Facebook page for Joy Organics. However, she was surprised to find herself denied access. She contacted her daughter, Hannah Smith — the company’s social media brains — as a means of solving the problem.

However, Hannah found that the Facebook page was officially unpublished and flagged for “promoting the sale of prescription pharmaceuticals.”

Even though CBD supplements are legal, Facebook commonly mistreats representatives of the newly emerging hemp market. In fact, Kit O’Connell, editor in chief at the Ministry, is banned from using Facebook’s ad platform due to his hemp advocacy efforts.

We reached out to Hannah in hopes of finding out more about her experience and what social media platforms such as Facebook will do in order to prevent these false flaggings from happening in the future.

TAKING ACTION AFTER FACEBOOK SHUTS DOWN CBD PAGES

When it all began, Hannah Smith didn’t think too much of it. Her initial inclinations suggested it was all a mistake that Facebook would easily fix through an appeal. Even when Facebook denied their appeal, they remained optimistic.

“Both me and my brother figured we’d just wait it out,” Smith explains.

“We just sent some emails and assumed they’d get on it. We figured they were dealing with a lot since it was the holidays, so, we didn’t think too much of it.”

However, Smith was soon met with a harsh reality: Facebook deliberately took down the page, claiming that it was encouraging prescription medication sales. Hemp-derived CBD oil is widely available over-the-counter as a nutritional supplement, both online and in many brick-and-mortar stores. After learning of Facebook’s real motivations, Smith took action.

“I created a petition as soon as I found out other CBD companies were going through the same thing,” she proclaims. “I thought it would be advantageous for us and the industry as a whole if I made the petition about more than just our Facebook.”

After sharing the petition with other hemp-derived CBD pages which Facebook had shut down, Smith was able to obtain 4,500 signatures. “Everyone was really excited to be doing something. To be taking action.”

FACEBOOK SHUTS DOWN CBD PAGES DURING HOLIDAY SEASON

This shut down had affected about three dozen hemp-derived CBD Facebook pages, both within the United States and across seas in the United Kingdom.

As mentioned, this happened just before the holiday season. Though most of Joy Organics sales are made on-site rather than online, there are CBD companies out there who sell most of their products over the internet. Social media plays a key role in online marketing. Facebook shutting down CBD pages during such a vital period of time could have severely affected sales.

Still, that isn’t to say the shut down didn’t have an impact on Joy Organics. Though their sales remained fine, they weren’t able to connect with their community. As Smith puts it, “it more hurt us in our ability to build credibility.”

Despite restoring their pages, Facebook hasn’t given a satisfactory explanation as to why these shutdowns occurred.

DID FACEBOOK SHUT DOWN CBD PAGES OVER FDA MEMO?

“Now, this is all speculation,” Smith begins.

“But there’s something about this that just doesn’t feel right for me. CBD is — in Facebook’s guidelines — you can’t buy ads on Facebook if you’re selling it. So, they’re aware of what CBD is. There are restrictions for CBD and restrictions for marijuana. So, I’m pretty sure they know the difference between the two.”

With that in mind, Smith finds one aspect of this whole scenario to be truly strange. This all happened right after the Farm Bill went through. During the initial days after hemp was fully legalized, searches for CBD skyrocketed.

“After the farm bill went through, there were so many new people looking for CBD resources,” Smith stresses. “The fact that this happened after the Farm Bill was signed is suspicious to me because it coincides with a huge spark of interest in the CBD industry and CBD products.”

Interestingly, Smith notes that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a statement shortly after the Farm Bill went through claiming CBD is illegal in food products. Some hemp advocates speculate Facebook saw that statement and decided to shutdown CBD pages. Still, Smith doesn’t believe this is the true root of the problem which occurred, especially after Facebook’s history of cracking down on hemp and CBD brands.

We’ll have more coverage of the FDA memo and what it means for CBD in an upcoming article.

WE CAN EXPECT MORE MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT HEMP

It should be expected that problems will continue to come about when it comes to the hemp and CBD industry. The unfortunate truth is the public still has trouble separating hemp from psychoactive cannabis (“marijuana”). Many people are still learning about the benefits of CBD.

According to Chavie Lieber, a senior reporter at Vox, “Facebook said it did not believe hemp or CBD companies violated any of these terms, but it did not further explain why its team had removed these pages in the first place.”

Though that may be true, it’s noteworthy to mention Smith had a very difficult time trying to resolve the issue. She could barely find a customer service email to contact.

“Facebook has a lot of places for people to go to prevent them from contacting customer service; forums and FAQs and stuff like that,” Smith explains.

Luckily, Joy Organics hasn’t seen any similar problems on other social media platforms.

At the end of the day, the hemp industry should expect more barriers. It’s going to take time for the public to understand what CBD and hemp truly are and the benefits they offer society.

Until then, Smith remains optimistic. “We hope when the laws change, the stigma will change.”

The post Fighting Back After Facebook Shuts Down CBD Pages appeared first on Ministry of Hemp.

Ministry of Hemp Editor in Chief Kit O’Connell spoke with Dawn Peacock, host of CBD Talk Podcast about recent hemp news in the U.S., including the 2018 Farm Bill. The Farm Bill, recently signed into law, fully legalizes industrial hemp in the United States.

While the Farm Bill represents a huge win for hemp advocates, there’s still more to do before hemp and CBD are fully accessible to everyone. A recent FDA statement about CBD’s legality after the Farm Bill has left people confused and concerned about the supplement’s future in the U.S. Dawn and Kit talk about what the memo really means, and why it could show the FDA is actually warming up to CBD.

In addition to the video above, this episode of CBD Talk is available as an audio file on Soundcloud:

Some of the links mentioned in the podcast:

• Legal Hemp In The USA: What The 2018 Farm Bill Means For US Hemp & Agriculture (Ministry of Hemp)
• Police Arrest Nebraska CBD Shop Owners Just Days Before Hemp Is Federally Legalized (Ministry of Hemp)
• Support Heather & Dreyson Beguin, Victims of Nebraska CBD Arrests (GoFundMe)
• Marc Grignon: Hemp Can Help Sustain Native Americans (Ministry of Hemp)
• FDA Signals Shift in Rhetoric Towards Hemp Products (LinkedIn/ Hoban Law Group)
• cbdMD Bath Bombs (Ministry of Hemp)
• CBDMEDIC Active Sport Ointment (Ministry of Hemp)
• Holistic Corn CBD Popcorn (Holistic Corn homepage)

CBD Talk is available on all your favorite podcast apps — give them a listen!

The post Kit O’Connell On The 2018 Farm Bill, The FDA, & Nebraska Hemp Arrests appeared first on Ministry of Hemp.

“We are thankful the development,” said attorney Maren Chaloupka in an emailed statement. Chaloupka, from the Scottsbluff-based firm Chaloupka, Holyoke, Snyder, Chaloupka & Longoria, represented the Beguin’s in the case, thanks to the financial assistance of CBD vendors Medterra. Chaloupka told us:

“The Beguins want to provide a homeopathic alternative that is drug-free, to help customers avoid addictive pharmaceuticals. We hope that the Nebraska Legislature will clarify that products that don’t contain THC and don’t get the user high are not illegal, and that the small businesses offering those products are not criminals.”

Update DECEMBER 26, 2018: A second Nebraska CBD shop, located in Bellevue, Nebraska, just south of Omaha, is now under threat from authorities. Though the American Shaman store operated without issue for the past 3 months, police gave owners 2 weeks to close down or face legal action. We’ll continue to update this article as this situation develops.

Last week, police raided a Nebraska CBD shop and arrested the owners.

KB Natural Alternatives, a CBD store in the small city of Scottsbluff, was only open for a day when about a dozen officers arrived to shut them down, according to owners Heather Beguin and her son Dreyson. Now, the pair face felony drug charges. Police accuse them of possessing a controlled substance with the intent to sell it to the public.

The arrests occurred just days before the December 20, 2018 passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, which fully removed hemp and all hemp-derived substances like CBD from the Controlled Substances Act.

The Beguins’ store sold products by Medterra, a well-known CBD company that creates products from legal industrial hemp. Medterra’s products are rigorously tested to show that they don’t contain illegal amounts of THC, the active ingredient in psychoactive cannabis (“marijuana”) which makes people feel high.

In an email, Medterra leadership told us they’re standing by the Beguins and will cover the pair’s legal expenses.

“As a company, Medterra stands behind the legality of our products and our partners right to sell it,” wrote Jay Hartenbach, Medterra’s CEO. “The CBD industry is one of compassion and we fully intend to support our partners as they help us raise awareness to those in need.”

Despite this welcome assistance, the Beguins are still struggling with the emotional, physical, financial and legal consequences of their arrests.

“I know and believe in what we’re doing, but this has set me and my body back after I worked so hard to recover,” said a distraught-sounding Heather, when we spoke by phone.

SHOP OWNER DISCOVERED CBD AFTER CAR WRECK

Heather discovered the benefits of CBD in the painful aftermath of a July 2018 car accident. As a recovering opiate addict, she wanted to avoid using the pain medication doctors prescribed after the wreck.

“I wasn’t really thrilled about putting [opiates] back into my body because of the risk that maybe I still like that feeling.”

Trying to “tough it out” through the pain only slowed her healing, however. Dreyson, who was living in Florida at the time, suggested CBD.

“If you can’t rest, you can’t heal,” she recalled Dreyson telling her. After she found that topical CBD helped ease her lingering pain and inflammation, she wanted to find a way to share CBD with others. Soon, Dreyson moved back home to Scottsbluff to help her open KB Natural Alternatives.

NEBRASKA CBD SHOP ARRESTS HIGHLIGHT COMPLEXITIES OF US HEMP LAWS

Scottsbluff is a city of about 15,000 people, about 450 miles west of Omaha. At the same time as police were handcuffing the Beguins in Nebraska, people were freely smoking legal recreational cannabis just over two hours away in Colorado without fear of legal reprisal. In Austin, Texas, where this reporter lives, you can buy similar CBD oil supplements at Whole Foods’ flagship store.

This isn’t the first time that police launched a crackdown on a local CBD business selling otherwise legal products. During the summer of 2017, state police raided 57 stores selling CBD products in Indiana. In March of this year, Indiana passed a new state law clarifying that CBD oil supplements are legal.

 “I just hope our public officials learn from the other states that hemp is clearly different from marijuana.”

The timing of the Nebraska CBD shop arrests makes the severe treatment faced by the Beguins even more shocking. On December 13, a full week before the President signed the Farm Bill, the Alabama state Attorney General announced they would back down from threats to prosecute CBD vendors. Today, Michigan legislators passed a pair of bills supporting hemp, one of which clearly affirms the legality of CBD oil products.

In an interview with local news, Gunhee Park, an Omaha hemp entrepreneur, called the arrests “sad” and suggested Nebraska police and politicians should follow other states’ examples.

“I just hope our public officials learn from the other states that hemp is clearly different from marijuana,” Park told KETV anchor David Earl.

(Ministry of Hemp launched in 2014 with the help of Park’s Libertas Ventures LLC.)

POLICE RAID LEAVES NEBRASKA CBD SHOP OWNERS TRAUMATIZED

The Beguins knew opening KB Natural Alternatives posed a legal risk, but neither expected police to respond with arrests or felony charges. Heather said she even knows of people in Scottsbluff selling CBD online.

Before opening, Heather and Dreyson visited the local police chief. The pair brought along a sample of Medterra’s CBD products and lab tests proving that Medterra is free from illegal THC. Though the chief insisted CBD is illegal in Nebraska, he refused when Heather offered to leave the products behind. Now, the pair are facing felony charges for possessing the same supplements.

KB Natural Alternatives opened on December 13. The following afternoon, police arrived in force, arresting both owners. Police even detained and interrogated Heather’s friend that was visiting the shop. Officers refused to show the Beguin’s a search warrant, then spent hours coming through the shop.

Heather was bonded out of jail after just a few hours, because her mother and Heather’s youngest son unexpectedly dropped by the store to find police there instead of Heather and Dreyson. The younger son had a “bad feeling” that led them to check on his mother.

“We’re a very connected family,” Heather said. “We’re very close.”

The family couldn’t afford to do the same for Dreyson, so he spent the weekend in jail. He wasn’t released until late afternoon on Monday.

Dreyson and Heather were clearly shaken by their experience. Both sounded near tears at various points during our phone conversation. Though Dreyson said spending the weekend in jail was hard, he sounded more upset about seeing his mother arrested.

Even after just one day of business, other Scottsbluff residents worry about losing access to CBD.

“I have customers calling me crying, texting me,” Heather said.

MEDTERRA OFFERS LEGAL ASSISTANCE TO NEBRASKA CBD SHOP OWNERS

We interviewed Heather and Dreyson Beguin on Wednesday, December 19. By Thursday, Medterra had been in touch to offer their support.

“We started this company to create products that help our friends and family, Medterra cofounder J.P. Larsen told us. “Our core value of helping people will always be our number one priority.”

Hartenbach told us he was helping the Beguin family find an attorney, and that Medterra would cover their attorney fees. Larsen seemed confident that they would win the case. Both legal precedent and the newly passed Farm Bill are on their side.

“We feel way more confident now, just the humiliation is taking a toll.”

“The Beguins took every step possible to ensure that they were selling Federally-compliant and quality CBD products,” Larsen wrote. “We hope that this case, such as many others, will be dismissed once the proper facts are conveyed.”

Reached today by Facebook messenger, Heather said she feels relieved.

“We feel way more confident now, just the humiliation is taking a toll.”

WILL NEBRASKA EMBRACE A HEMPY FUTURE, OR REMAIN STUCK IN THE PAST?

Nebraska officials seem unmoved by the landmark hemp legalization signed into law this week, at least according to Suzanne Gage, spokesperson for Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson.

“Unless amended by the Nebraska Legislature, all CBD products in Nebraska are still illegal under the Nebraska Uniformed Controlled Substance Act,” Gage told KETV. “The recently passed Farm Bill did not alter existing Nebraska law on this issue at this point in time.”

Statements like these make Gunhee Park afraid that his state is going to miss out on a billion dollar industry, along with hemp’s numerous other benefits.

“For our state to so staunchly say no, especially being an agricultural state, is confounding.”

Although Medterra is stepping up to support the Beguins, they’ll still have numerous additional expenses to deal with in the aftermath of their arrests and the closure of their business.

A close friend, Melinda Walsh, established a GoFundMe fundraiser to support Heather and Dreyson Beguin. Ministry of Hemp donated, and we encourage our readers and others in the hemp industry to help out if they can.

Both Heather and Dreyson will return to court later this month for preliminary court hearings. We’ll continue to update this story as it develops.

The post UPDATE: Drug Charges Against Nebraska CBD Shop Owners Dropped appeared first on Ministry of Hemp.