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Thailand in green rush as government pushes Thai cannabis as cash crop

by The Real Dirt | Mar 8, 2021 | 420 News, Blog, Business, Cannabis Law and Compliance, Hemp, Hemp Law, Politics

Thailand cannabis could become a major economy booster

BURIRAM, Thailand (Reuters) – Thais flocked to a cannabis exhibition as interest and demand in the plant surges after the government unlocked hemp use in food and cosmetics in the latest move to promote a new cash crop.

The government held a convention in Buriram province in northeastern Thailand over the weekend to educate the public on cannabis use and promote businesses. People were able to taste hemp-based noodles, ice-cream and drinks.

Hemp plants are a variety of cannabis that have higher concentrations of CBD, the non-psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, and lower levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

“Ganja (marijuana) is the rising star to bring our good quality of lives and money back in our purses as good (economy) as before and even better,” said Withid Sarideechaikoo, director of Buriram public health and organiser of the Cannabis 360° event, referring to the plant’s local name.

“It will bring good quality of lives to us and to the country.”

Thailand has been pushing cannabis as a cash crop and state drug maker the Government Pharmaceutical Organization has said it would buy a kilogram of cannabis with 12% CBD, the non-psychoactive ingredient, for 45,000 baht ($1,500).

A group of seven individuals could form a village enterprise and seek government permission to grow hemp.

Thailand, which has a tradition of using cannabis to relieve pain and fatigue, legalised marijuana for medical use and research in 2017 to boost agricultural income.

“It is in Thais’ mindset that delicious noodle soup with beef should added with ganja,” said noodle shop owner Sitthichan Wutthiphonkun.

“This thing (cannabis) will not only boost our restaurant business, but it will drive the whole economy. People will want to try it from food to cosmetics.”

(Writing by Chayut Setboonsarng, editing by Ed Osmond)

Original story from Yahoo Finance

Texas Hemp Harvested For First Time in 80 Years

by The Real Dirt | Dec 10, 2020 | 420 News, Blog, Hemp, Hemp Law

farmers are harvesting hemp in Texas for the first time in decades

Hemp is being harvested in Texas for the first time in 80 years.

The state created its own program as part of the Federal Farm Bill and this is the first year farmers in the Lone Star State are able to give it a shot and cultivate Texas hemp.

One of those farmers is Aaron Owens. He’s a first-time Texas hemp farmer but he’s not new to cannabis or tending to land. He spent 15 years ranching in Ozona, Texas, before moving to Central Texas to focus on hemp.

Besides being among the first to harvest in Texas, what makes his company, Tejas Hemp, unique is the type of hemp it’s growing.

“This particular cultivar has never been grown in the United States. No one has ever had it before. It’s the first-ever sativa hemp, meaning that where an indica will slow you down and help you relax and reduce shaking and make you go to sleep, a sativa actually increases awareness and focus and takes you into the other direction. It’s more of a stimulating thing,” explained Owens.

It’s not the type of cannabis that’ll get you high – that’s still illegal in Texas. But Democrats at the Texas State Capitol are again working to change that, saying legalizing and taxing marijuana could help the state’s economy recover from the pandemic. For now Texas hemp will have to suffice for farmers and consumers.

“It’s inevitable at this point, we’re going to federally legalize marijuana, there’s no question. Is it this year, next year, five years? We don’t know. What we do know is that every year that goes by in Texas that we don’t legalize, that’s another year that the other people get ahead of us,” said Owens.

Republicans have been hesitant to loosen restrictions on cannabis. But in the meantime, Tejas Hemp will be farming what is legal and even has plans for a Texas hemp “tasting room” on their land as the state’s laws around the plant also grow.

The Texas Hemp Coalition has been advocating legislators and consumers across the state on the different benefits of the crop. One of the things Hemp farmers would also like to see is for the state’s ban on smokable hemp to be lifted.

Next session they hope lawmakers will make it easier for farmers like Owens to reap the benefits of their crops here in Texas.

Read the original story on Spectrum News 1

Hemp Industry Win: Farmers Might Finally Get Bank Access

by Travis C | Dec 5, 2019 | 420, 420 News, Blog, Business, Cannabis Law, Hemp, Hemp Law

Banking has been an issue for cannabis and hemp businesses alike due to federal banking restrictions for years. But for hemp, that all could be changing very soon.

It’s safe to say that the hemp industry and cannabis industry don’t have the best relationships with banks. Because most banks are federal institutions, they have to follow federal law. This is why despite cannabis being legal in multiple state, businesses have a lot of difficulty finding a bank that will work with them.

While this will remain the case for the cannabis industry unless the SAFE Banking Act passes, the legal hemp industry has achieved another milestone in regards to banking for legal hemp businesses.

Hemp Industry Banking

Currently, the banks that actually work with legal hemp businesses could be counted on one hand. Due to strict requirements that come with loads of paperwork, most banks just avoid hemp businesses all together. But that is all about to change.

Federal and state bank regulators announced Tuesday that they were scrapping a burdensome requirement that banks said kept them away from the hemp business. With the requirement scrapped, banks no longer have to treat their hemp customers as suspicious and file reams of paperwork to anti-money-laundering authorities for each interaction.

In other words, with less paper work and red tape surrounding the legal hemp industry, banks are about to feel a lot safer about working with hemp businesses. And it’s not like the demand isn’t there either.

In November of 2019, the American Banking Association surveyed 1,800 agriculture-focused banks in the country and found that almost half had gotten questions from their farmer-customers about whether they would still do business with them if they started growing hemp.

Hopping on a moving train

Banks have been sitting on the sidelines of the legal hemp industry and legal cannabis industry for a while now, and the industry has progressed just fine without the financial institutions up to this point. Even though banks have been slow to embrace the cannabis industry, investors have been geared up to profit from it.

Analysts tracking publicly traded companies have added pot producers to their portfolios, in order to help investors decide where best to maximize their exposure to the industry. Ultra-rich venture capitalists have begun to treat pot businesses like tech start-ups. While some stocks have had their hiccups, the industry is looking strong and projected to continue growing through 2020 and beyond.

While banks have been slow to get onboard the legal hemp industry train, hemp businesses will likely be happy to work with them now that the requirements have been lessened. Even though hemp flower producers may still find it difficult having a product so similar to federally illegal cannabis, other businesses in hemp clothing and manufacturing should start finding it much easier to find a bank that will work with them.

Is cannabis banking next?

The hemp industry is making strides on strides in terms of legalization and banking access, whereas legal cannabis industries have been inching along slowly year over year. Progress has been exponential since Colorado first legalized in 2012, with multiple states following suit in the years after. But with federal law remaining the same regarding cannabis, progress has been slow with legal cannabis businesses still lacking banking access, despite state law.

The SAFE Banking Act is currently the best hope legal cannabis businesses have to achieve banking access in the near future. While the bill has already passed through the House of Representatives with large support from the banking industry. However not many are hopeful of the bill surviving the republican controlled senate headed by Mitch McConnell.

The irony of the whole situation is that McConnell is largely responsible for the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill the federally legalized hemp across the country, yet he will also be the reason that legal cannabis businesses may not get the access to banks they desperately need. Only time will tell, and for, all the wires are silent.

First Year of Industrial Hemp: Is it Booming or Bust?

by Travis C | Nov 27, 2019 | 420, 420 News, Blog, Business, Hemp

Millions of pounds harvested. Tons of CBD extracted. But the market might not be ready for so much industrial hemp.

There was no shortage of farmers ready to make the switch to industrial hemp after the Farm Bill passed at the end of 2018. Many were looking for a new cash crop that they could get in on to make some real money.

The beginning of 2019 and outdoor grow season was an exciting time for just about everybody involved. More states passed legislation over time establishing their own ground rules for industrial hemp, and farmers licensed up, cleared out their land and made the transition.

The Industrial Hemp Boom

The mass migration of farmers and traditional cannabis cultivators to industrial hemp led to a massive increase in production. Everything from hemp seeds and hemp flower to CBD extracts and the plant’s fibers were all the sudden in extremely high demand. So much so that just about every dispensary, smoke shop and even gas stations started selling CBD products on their shelves.

Sales exploded with more and more articles vouching for the medicinal benefits of CBD and the potential financial gains the industrial hemp industry could provide the country. On top of the media exposure, plenty of celebrities hopped on the CBD band wagon, with actors and athletes alike sponsoring and being sponsored by CBD companies, and some even creating their own.

CBD is the first real aspect of cannabis to break into the mainstream, and even be celebrated on a massive scale. Recreational cannabis pales in comparison to the international attention CBD has received just in the last 12 months. But with any new industry that takes off sprinting from the gate, there are going to be some trip-ups.

The Industrial Hemp Bust

While industrial hemp production was regulated on the state level, there is very little regulation in the way of CBD production, and barriers to entry were (and still are) extremely low. The lack of regulation allowed a lot of untrustworthy and potentially dangerous products out into the market. While the producers of these products made a pretty penny, the consumers soon started to learn of the risks of bad CBD products.

A lot of shady CBD manufacturers got in, sold their bad product made from poorly grown “biomass” and got out with their money. There was an industrial hemp seed deal in which the buyer was promised feminized seeds but received more than half male seeds, resulting in a multi-million dollar law suit.

As the hemp harvest season came to a close, a lot of farmers were hit with a massive reality check; too many people are growing hemp. Farmers brought their hemp to auction, some hauling thousands of pounds hundreds of miles in the hopes of getting a big chunk of change in return. Almost every single farmer at the auction left without a sale.

The overflow of product, both in biomass and CBD extract has led to a crash in the price as supply for outweighs demand. While the consumer may benefit from lower prices, many farmers who were hoping the industrial hemp would be the answer to their financial problems are starting to second guess their decision.

What Does 2020 Hold for Hemp?

The industrial hemp industry is due to have some fat trimmed. A lot of farmers are going to ditch hemp after an unsuccessful harvest and go back to their traditional row crops. As consumers learn about unreliable CBD products, the shady companies will drop off, and very few might step up and raise their standards.

Farmers with the right connections that were able to secure deals ahead of harvest made a lot of money this year, and it’s only going to increase in 2020. Hemp genetics and seed breeding is going to become more of a desired job title, and more cannabis breeders will begin adding hemp to their repertoire.

Overall, while many did not have a successful year with legal hemp, just as many did. Industrial hemp will keep expanding into different forays of the plant’s abilities, like using its fibers to create concrete, clothing, paper and more. While some states have made a push against it, smokable hemp flower is also getting bigger as people look for a cannabis alternative that still provides medicinal benefits without the THC high.

Frankly, the possibilities of hemp, just like cannabis, are nearly endless. We can only look forward in excitement and enjoy the ride!

Did the USDA Really Deschedule THC?

by Travis C | Jun 3, 2019 | 420, Blog, Broscience Mythbusters, Cannabis Law, Culture, Hemp, Hemp Law

The USDA did deschedule THC. Just not in the way people currently believe.

An article that has exploded within the cannabis community claims that the USDA quietly “legalized” THC last week. While this isn’t entirely wrong, it is incredibly misleading. This is because the descheduling of THC by the USDA only applies to THC in hemp.

For a quick refresher, The Farm Bill of 2018 legalized industrial hemp. This “legal” hemp is defined as any cannabis plant with a THC percentage of .3% or less. But if THC is still on the controlled substances list, how can that be?

The USDA on THC

In a memorandum submitted to the Secretary of Agriculture on May 28th, the USDA gives a legal opinion on provisions to the Farm Bill. They point out a specific amendment in the newest version of the bill that removed THC in hemp from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

By amending the definition of marijuana to exclude hemp as defined in AMA §297A, Congress removed hemp from schedule 1 and removed it entirely from the CSA. This means hemp is no longer considered a controlled substance at all. With the amendment to exclude THC in hemp from schedule 1, Congress has also removed THC in hemp from the CSA.

Now, that last sentence from the memorandum is what people are getting excited about. When paraphrased to say, “Congress has removed THC from the CSA,” it’s easy to see why. But the key words in the entire amendment is “IN HEMP”.

THC in Hemp

This is where the entire article claiming THC is legal falls apart. Hemp has a very specific definition, that being the definition requiring a THC content of .3% or less to be considered hemp. It makes perfect sense that THC in hemp would need to be legal, in order for legal hemp to be able to contain any amount of THC. In other words, because hemp can contain up to .3% THC, that THC needs to be legal for the hemp to be legal.

Now, because of hemps legal definition pertaining to any cannabis plant with .3% THC or less, surpassing the .3% threshold disqualifies the plant as hemp. Under this legal definition, anything above .3% THC is considered psychoactive cannabis, which is still a controlled substance that is federally illegal.

Why it Matters

The article that broke this story hinted at future possibilities with this newly legal THC, like simply breeding hemp to have higher THC. And that’s what makes this article lose all credibility.

Remember when I said that to be legally considered hemp, the cannabis plant must have a THC content of .3% or less? And remember what happens when the THC content surpasses that .3%? It’s no longer hemp.

While this article suggests that the USDA basically just added a magic loophole that will now allow breeders to grow THC rich hemp, it forgets to mention that by doing so, the plant will no longer be hemp. If the author knew the origins of the cannabis plant, they would know that most of the THC-rich strains we consume today were bred to have that high content from what originally was European Hemp with almost no THC to begin with.

What this article is suggesting, is basically repeating the entire history of cannabis breeding, so we can turn the legal hemp we have now, back into illegal cannabis. If you want The Real Dirt’s legal advice, we suggest that you don’t do that. THC has been legalized in the sense that as long as it is in hemp, and does not surpass .3%, it is legal. Once it leaves the hemp, or surpasses .3%, you’re entering some dangerous territory.

But hey, you can judge for yourself! Read the full USDA Memorandum right here.