HempTalk - Business Blogs and Press Releases

The election is still a ways off, but one state has legalized pot already in 2018.

Vermont made history back in January by becoming the first state to ever pass a recreational cannabis law through the legislature – as opposed to putting it up for a popular vote.

And there are almost a dozen states that are slated to have cannabis legislation on the ballot in November.

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Ben Neal ~ WeedReader.com ~

Victory Hemp Foods, a Kentucky, USA hemp food maker is expanding into the American northeast through the purchase of a former canola and sunflower processing plant in the state of Vermont.

The added facilities will expand production to 8,000 gallons of hemp seed oil each month, Chad Rosen, Victory Hemp’s founder, recently told SevenSaysVt.com. Byproduct after extraction yields 50,000 pounds of hemp protein powder that Victory uses in other products. The company has distribution in major retail chains such as Kroger and Whole Foods Markets in Kentucky. Rosen said Victory hopes to set up distribution of its products in Vermont this year.

Victory, based in Campbellsburg, Kentucky, bought the processing factory from the Full Sun Company, which went out of business last year. The company has hired Chris Bailey, founder and former CEO at Vermont Smoke & Cure, a producer of a line of meat products, to serve as the company’s COO.

Rosen said Victory looks to contract with Vermont hemp farmers, and has plans to buy raw materials from producers in New York and Maine.

The post Kentucky food maker expands in U.S. northeast appeared first on HempToday.

Two Florida doctors are seeking a total $4.4 million from a Colorado-based firm they say defrauded them in a CBD scam, the Denver Post reported.

Dr. Josse Anthony Mazo and his wife, Dr. Maritza Riascos have sued John Michael Merritt Jr., owner of Full Spectrum Nutrition, in Denver’s U.S. District Court. They’re seeking return of their original investment of $1.1 million plus three times that amount in damages, according to their attorney, Craig Brand, who filed the lawsuit.

The claimants accuse Merritt as owner of Full Spectrum, presumably based in Colorado Springs, of using their money to support a Costa Rican wildlife refuge

“It’s all done as a sham,” Brand told the Post, calling Merritt a “classic con artist” who preys on unwitting victims looking to make it rich in the cannabis business. Mazo and Riascos claim in their lawsuit that Merritt, who also has homes in Florida, Costa Rica and Louisiana, based his pitch on a deal he’d obtained to source CBD products at steep discounts from Folium Biosciences, a Colorado Springs-based hemp-products wholesaler.

The post Doctors seek $4.4 million in suit over CBD investment appeared first on HempToday.

The conference is part pharmaceutical trade show and part pow-wow for patient advocates and the industry’s legal advocates, as well.

At no point in American history has marijuana been this popular.

Poll after poll shows that public perceptions about the drug continue to soften while usage of the drug continues to rise.

More states are legalizing it outright or launching medical marijuana programs like the nascent one currently underway in Pennsylvania.

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Actress Cynthia Nixon is challenging New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic nomination in next fall's election, and it appears the Sex and the City star is making marijuana legalization a cornerstone of her campaign.

Earlier this week Nixon posted a video where she encouraged the state to legalize marijuana and made the issue her first policy plank of her campaign.

She specifically said she wanted to do so to fix racial inequalities caused by the War on Drugs.

Marijuana is one issue where Nixon can gain some traction on Cuomo.

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With sales of hemp food and cosmetics expanding all over the world, legacy hemp firms are facing up to the challenges in the fast-paced sectors and experiencing rapid growth. Leading global hemp veterans will share their analysis of the current state of the markets during HempToday’s Hemp Food, Health & Beauty Summit May 25-26, 2018 in Poland.

Daniel Kruse, Hempro Int. GmbH & Co., Germany, and Hana Gabrielova, CEO at Hempoint, Czech Republic, will share insights into current market trends and reflect on their journey through the industry over the past two decades during the event set for HempToday Center.

Innovative applicants get 15-minute slots

Attendance is limited to 25 delegates, with applications now being accepted. Submissions reflecting innovative hemp initiatives or products can earn participants a 15-minute presentation and feedback from the leading practitioners in attendance.

With demand for hemp seeds in Europe currently double what growers on the continent can supply, the value chain continues to be inefficient, requiring imports from Canada and China to meet the needs of the food, health & beauty sectors on the continent. That gap signals enticing investment opportunities in an industry that has already developed a basic regional infrastructure and is rich with entrepreneurs developing the plant into a wide range of innovative products.

Up close with leading international players

A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate today would open up industrial hemp farming and make federal funding available for research of the plant’s uses and give farmers the chance to get insure their crops.

The Hemp Farming Act of 2018 would remove hemp from Schedule 1 of the U.S. Controlled Substance Act and let states create their own regulatory regimes under guidance of the federal Department of Agriculture. Hemp is currently under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which treats it as the equivalent of marijuana — and therefore illegal.

More than 30 states have hemp programs

The Senate bill is a successor to one Congress authorized in 2014. Since then, more than 30 states have created pilot hemp programs: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, who introduced the Senate Bill, said two weeks ago he will be talking about hemp issues with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a longtime cannabis law reform opponent.

The post New bill would fully legalize hemp in USA appeared first on HempToday.

"When a celebrity who doesn't fit the stereotype [of a pot smoker] gets into promoting cannabis, it expands the conceptual footprint that cannabis has in the minds of current and potential consumers."

It seems only natural that Tommy Chong, of the stoner comedy duo Cheech and Chong, would have his own marijuana brand.

"I'm the most recognizable pot head, probably, in the world," Chong told CNNMoney.

Chong lends his name to Chong's Choice, a marijuana brand that's available in six states: Arizona, where medical marijuana is legal, along with California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Nevada, where recreational marijuana is legal, too. 

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“Over the last 10 or 15 years, the American people’s attitudes have changed dramatically,” he said in an interview. “I find myself in that same position.”

The U.S. marijuana industry has a new spokesman: John Boehner.

The Republican former Speaker of the House has joined the advisory board of Acreage Holdings, a company that cultivates, processes and dispenses cannabis in 11 U.S. states.

Boehner’s endorsement, after saying nine years ago he was “unalterably opposed” to legalization, could be considered a watershed event: Marijuana has gone mainstream.

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The most disruptive product to hit the newly legal hemp industry might be one that will never be sold directly to consumers. GW Pharmaceuticals, a London-based biotech company, is awaiting a final decision from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to produce the first cannabis-derived treatment to win approval as legal medicine. The decision on […]

Impending ruling on epilepsy drug has CBD industry on alert is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

The head of a leading firm that connects businesses with job seekers says that employment in the legal marijuana industry is growing faster than any other field.

"You know what the fastest-growing job category in the United States is?" ZipRecruiter.com co-founder and CEO Ian Siegel asked. "Marijuana."

And he should know. His company calls itself the "fastest growing employment marketplace" and claims to have "helped over 1 million businesses and 100 million job seekers find their next perfect match."

"Twenty-nine states have legalized marijuana. There's 445% job growth in job listings in the category year over year," he said at a conference hosted by U.S. News & World Report on Friday. 

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A measure to help improve diversity in Maryland's new medical marijuana industry received final approval by the General Assembly on Monday, as lawmakers worked toward a midnight deadline when the legislative session is scheduled to end.

Maryland lawmakers also will be working on measures designed to improve school safety and fight crime.

The medical marijuana measure increases the number of grower licenses from 15 to as many as 22.

Two licenses are set aside for two companies that sued over the licensing process and four more will be up for grabs.

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Gathered under clouds of weed smoke on the University of Michigan Diag, cannabis enthusiasts young and old passed joints and smoked bowls.

Thousands came out for the 47th annual Hash Bash marijuana rally in Ann Arbor on Saturday, April 7.

For two hours, the crowd cheered on speakers including politicians, professional athletes and leading marijuana legalization activists who issued a call for legalizing marijuana in Michigan.

Ann Arbor musician Laith Al-Saadi, who achieved fame as a finalist on NBC's "The Voice," played the national anthem on electric guitar to kick things off, after which speakers took the mic.

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As the cannabis plant awaits a high-stakes review from international health authorities, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is asking the public to weigh in on whether cannabis, CBD and other cannabis extracts should be declassified as a controlled substance.

The United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) made a preliminary announcement in December that CBD has a low potential for abuse and shouldn't be scheduled as a controlled substance.

FDA seeks public input on whether cannabis, CBD should be descheduled is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

The Colorado legislature has advanced a bill that would allow school nurses to administer medical marijuana to students.

While students in Colorado are already permitted to use medicinal cannabis at school it must be administer by a legal guardian or parent.

The bill is named after student Quintin Lovato who, along with his mother Hannah, testified that the current regulations are disruptive to their daily lives. 

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Calvin Hughes ~ Civilized.Life ~ 

Hemp activist Ras Chikomeni Chirwa says he may join Malawi’s presidential race next year as an independent candidate. While Chirwa, an elder in the Nyabinghi Rastafarian order, is given scant chance of taking the presidency, his participation could help to raise awareness of hemp in the tiny country of 18 million in southeastern Africa. No Rastafarian has ever run for president in Malawi.

The lingering conflation of hemp and marijuana may hold back broader development as Malawi, like other African governments, relies heavily on international aid from funders such as the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development. Malawi officials fear those funds would be withheld if the country goes full-on for development of a hemp industry. Malawi has traditionally lumped industrial hemp with marijuana

Hemp advocates in Malawi say getting an industry going could help the country’s sagging economy which has been hit by the effects of drought and a decline in tobacco production.

The post Hemp advocate in Malawi hints at presidential bid appeared first on HempToday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is asking for public comments to guide the United States’ position on the legal status of cannabis before it puts forward a formal position to the United Nations (UN).

The UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) is currently in review of the global status of cannabidiol, marijuana, THC, and other compounds derived from plants in the cannabis family. Public comments to the FDA are due by April 23.

CBD has advanced

A WHO pre-review released last December recommended CBD undergo further study, noting the substance, which is not currently listed under international schedules but is locked into Schedule I in the U.S., “has been demonstrated as an effective treatment of epilepsy in several clinical trials” and “is generally well tolerated with a good safety profile.”

Under current U.S. law and international agreements, hemp’s cousin marijuana is placed in the most restrictive category of Schedule I. That means marijuana cannot be legally prescribed and is under heavy restrictions regarding research. Nations which are party to drug treaties are not free to legalize marijuana in their local markets. Marijuana specifically has never been formally reviewed since being placed in Schedule I of the international agreement in 1961.

June meeting critical

WHO’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence will meet in June to discuss classifications for both and will then make pre-review recommendations to the UN secretary-general about conducting a more in-depth analysis.

As the hemp industry grows in the United States and around the globe, so too does Marijuana Business Daily’s coverage of it. We’ve launched a new website, Hemp Industry Daily, to provide objective and market-driven coverage of where the hemp sector  is headed and what business leaders and investors need to know to be successful. […]

MJBizDaily launches website dedicated to hemp coverage is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

The co-founder of marijuana vape manufacturer Organa Brands is leaving to start a new company focused on hemp-derived wellness products. Ralph Morgan said he is still exploring a name and headquarters location for his new company, which will produce cannabidiol concentrates marketed to a medical audience, not recreational marijuana consumers. Morgan told Marijuana Business Daily […]

Organa Brands co-founder Ralph Morgan departs for new CBD venture is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

By Daniel Kruse
Special to HempToday

If Europe doesn’t move fast on hemp, we’ll be missing an historic opportunity to maintain our rightful place as the leader of the crop’s revival in the 20th and 21st centuries. And it all comes down to THC.

While most European countries follow an EU directive that sets THC limits for hemp at 0.2%, leading hemp nations around the world operate on a generally accepted global standard of 0.3%.

That EU member states – guided by wobbly directives from Brussels — continue to operate under the 0.2% THC limit, puts our producers at a critical disadvantage as the global hemp industry quickly expands.