Over the past month, hemp entrepreneurs have traveled to the Florida State Capitol to advocate against a proposal to regulate hemp-derived products that could potentially hurt the hemp industry.
But Monday, many of those same professionals were cheering after the sponsor of the latest version of the bill removed any reference to limiting the THC dosage of those hemp-derived products. THC is the compound in the cannabis plant that can get you high.
In a committee meeting Monday, Manatee County House Republican Will Robinson Jr. said: “All caps are O.U.T., Out.”
Robinson was responding to a colleague, Democrat Anna Eskamani, of Orlando, on the committee. Robinson confirmed to her that his new amendment to the legislation would remove any references to capping the amount of THC in hemp products.
That means that products in hemp stores are not going to be affected in terms of their potency to consumers.
At the same time, the bill is still moving on issues regarding safety. The measure still maintains the safety requirements to keep products like Delta-8 THC out of the hands of those under age 21, provisions that aren’t remotely controversial and have been embraced by virtually everyone who has testified in three previous committee meetings held in the House and Senate.
“We’ve sure come a long way on this one,” said Florida Cannabis Action Network president Jodi James.
“You did a great job – saved a lot of businesses,” added William Clark from the Libertarian Party of Florida.
Carlos Hermida owns a hemp dispensary in Tampa and has attended previous committee meetings about the bill. He opted not to travel to Tallahassee Monday when he saw Robinson’s amendment added to the legislation last Friday.
“The public spoke and Robinson listened!” Hermida told the Phoenix in a text message. “I can’t help but be thankful to the representative for protecting the hemp industry and protecting our children.”
As originally written, Robinson’s bill HB 1475 (as well as a similar version in the state Senate) set limits on how much THC could be included per serving and per package of hemp products. Robinson raised the limits after the bill received its first hearing in a House committee, but hemp advocates said the limits still were far too low and would have made hemp-derived products less potent for consumers to purchase and thus threaten their businesses.
Robinson admitted that “there is more work to be done in this space,” but said that it was also a great indication that the committee process works. “It’s very important to take input from stakeholders and others,” he said.
The measure was unanimously approved by the House Infrastructure Committee, its third and final committee and now will go to the House floor. Its Senate equivalent (SB 1676) is scheduled to go before the Fiscal Policy Committee on Thursday of this week.
Hemp absorbs twice as much carbon per hectare of land than a forest does, and hemp-derived products can be used to replace paper, petroleum-based plastics, and cotton fibers.
In 2021, the U.S. hemp market was reported to be worth $824 million in 2021. By 2030, the global hemp market is predicted to be worth $17.24 billion.
The 2023 Farm Bill offers an opportunity to iron out ambiguities surrounding hemp production that will benefit farmers and stabilize the market. The upcoming Farm Bill is also an opportunity to create hemp policies that recognize the historical injustices that Indigenous and Black farmers have experienced.
Across the aisle, the question of how to handle the production of industrial hemp, a newly legalized crop, is on legislators’ minds. As the 2023 Farm Bill begins to come into focus, this carbon-sequestering plant has the potential to reshape U.S. agriculture.
Hemp absorbs twice as much carbon per hectare of land than a forest does, and hemp-derived products can be used to replace paper, petroleum-based plastics, and cotton fibers. But hemp, a strain of the Cannabis plant (from which marijuana is derived), was previously considered a Schedule I substance—the most highly regulated narcotics under the Controlled Substances Act.
The 2014 Farm Bill (P.L. 113-179) legally distinguished hemp from marijuana by defining hemp as having a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) level below 0.3 percent, which is insufficient to produce narcotics. But it limited hemp cultivation to research purposes only. The 2018 Farm Bill (P.L. 115-334) relaxed many restrictions and established the Domestic Hemp Production Program, making it easier for farmers to grow and sell hemp. The legalization of hemp cultivation in the United States has allowed farmers to employ the crop to promote sustainable farming practices and produce sustainable alternatives to plastics and other materials.
The 2023 Farm Bill can serve as an opportunity to ensure hemp is cultivated and produced to its fullest potential. Ambiguities in federal laws must be addressed to ensure that the hemp market, which was reported to be worth $824 million in 2021, continues growing.
Power to the Plant
Much of hemp’s appeal as a sustainable solution stems from its carbon sequestration rate. In an interview with Dezeen, Cambridge University researcher Darshil Shah stated that hemp can capture between 10 and 15 tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) for each hectare of cultivation, a rate twice that of forests. Its fast growth rate means that farmers have the opportunity to harvest hemp multiple times per year, priming it for climate mitigation efforts.
Hemp’s high yields hold the promise of replacing other fiber- and oil-producing plants. According to the National Hemp Association, one acre of hemp produces double the amount of oil than an acre of peanuts does, and it also produces four times as much fiber pulp used for paper than an acre of trees does. When processed, every part of the hemp plant can be used for a wide range of products, including biofuels and textiles.
The wide range of versatile hemp-derived products has the potential to address U.S. reliance on plastics, fossil fuels, and cotton, by serving as a sustainable replacement. Currently, the Center for International Environmental Law predicts that plastic consumption will continue increasing and account for 20 percent of oil consumption by 2050. Hemp, however, offers a naturally biodegradable alternative that can replace petroleum-based plastic materials on both the commercial and industrial scale. Alongside bioplastics, hemp has gained prominence being a durable alternative to cotton, as it requires less land and around half of the water cotton crops need. Beyond clothing and plastics, hemp has been used in construction with products like hempcrete, and its seeds have been used in cosmetics and in food for their nutritional value. With this plethora of sustainable benefits, hemp has the potential to reshape more than just agriculture.
Moreover, the carbon sequestration of hemp has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from U.S. agriculture—which the EPA estimated accounted for 11.2 percent of total U.S. GHG emissions in 2020. By offering sustainable alternatives to high-emission products, hemp cultivation could help the United States meet its climate goals.
Addressing Diversity in Farming via Hemp
Though the legislative focus on industrial hemp has been relatively recent, Indigenous peoples have been farming hemp long before it was legalized in the 2014 Farm Bill. Yet, current hemp legislation and its enforcement do not quite recognize this—nor do they treat Indigenous farmers equally to their white counterparts.
In 2015, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seized 30,000 hemp plants and invaded sovereign land belonging to the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, claiming that these plants violated the law as they were intended to produce marijuana. The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit against the DEA agents for the destruction of their crops. They claimed that they were legally growing hemp on their lands for research by the College of the Menominee Tribe, yet the judge agreed with the DEA’s attorney and dismissed the lawsuit.
This case is an example of how the enforcement of hemp legislation is complicated by the history of Indigenous land dispossession by the U.S. government. Environmental activist and member of the Ojibwe tribe Winona LaDuke is advocating for both the environmental benefits and social benefits of hemp policy crafted with respect to communities of color, their histories, and their beliefs.
Writing for the Esperanza Project, LaDuke spotlights how plots of hemp qualify as carbon sinks, with the plant itself being capable of replacing carbon-intensive materials. LaDuke notes that these qualities offset GHG emissions, which prompts ecological restoration that can be led by young Indigenous leaders. Thus, there is potential for hemp production to provide added income to Indigenous communities and act as part of a path toward a sustainable, circular economy.
The hemp market is predicted to continue to grow and reach a global value of $17.24 billion by 2030. With this growth comes the opportunity for more farmers to get involved—farmers such as Indigenous and Black farmers who have been traditionally left behind by agricultural policies. Hemp can be grown on small plots of land, a trait beneficial for farmers of color who typically do not own the same large expanses of land that their white counterparts do.
Black and Indigenous communities in the United States have faced a history of exclusion from land ownership and economic opportunities, and this history has shaped their access to agriculture today. According to a 2012 USDA report, only 1.4 percent of the country’s 3.2 million farmers are Black farmers as a result of discrimination from lending institutions, including the USDA. Black farmers are hoping to see hemp policy address historical injustices in agriculture.
A change to hemp licensing would be a first step to addressing historical injustices. Federal law requires farmers applying for hemp licenses to not have had a drug felony in the past 10 years. As the Drug Policy Alliance reports, Black and Latinx people are more likely to have marijuana-related drug felonies which, under this policy, further excludes them from harvesting the benefits of hemp.
A lack of hemp education is another issue affecting both Black and Indigenous farmers that hemp policy could address. The Pew Charitable Trusts has reported on organizations forming to educate people on hemp, what it is, and how to acquire a license for it. Such education could be undertaken by the federal government to ensure that hemp production is inclusive and sustainable for all.
Hemp’s Future in the Farm Bill
The Farm Bill has always been an opportunity for policymakers to address agricultural and food issues on a federal level. The federal government defined industrial hemp, differentiating it from marijuana, and developed the Hemp Research Pilot program to legalize hemp cultivation for research purposes in the 2014 Farm Bill. Outside of research, hemp production was still illegal under federal law. The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp cultivation outside of pilot products, though it also restricted the THC content of hemp plants.
Ahead of the 2023 Farm Bill, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research held a congressional hearing to see how the next Farm Bill could improve hemp production. In this hearing, the need for clear regulations around CBD (the active ingredient in cannabis derived from hemp plants) and for stronger supply chain processing were highlighted, alongside further opportunities for hemp-derived products within climate markets.
Frustration and confusion around CBD laws has been a topic of concern for hemp farmers since the 2018 Farm Bill. Now, it is one of the issues hemp industry advocates hope to see addressed in the 2023 Farm Bill. Beyond CBD, the National Hemp Association is hoping to see three other major changes. It is advocating for a specific carve-out for hemp grain and fiber to develop a framework for promoting these products, for hemp grain to be allowed as animal feed to support farmers, and for the THC limit to be raised to one percent instead of 0.3 percent. Raising the THC limit has been discussed by numerous hemp organizations and farmers, as a one percent limit provides leeway and lessens the need for crops to be destroyed.
The National Law Review highlights further hemp-related changes that may be included in the 2023 Farm Bill, one of which being the revision of the broad definition of hemp. Currently, only delta-9 THC has been regulated in the 2018 Farm Bill, and there are worries that this is a loophole for unregulated hemp sales of other kinds of THC. Moreover, federal laws do not address what happens when the THC level of raw hemp exceeds the 0.3 percent allowed, even if it is ultimately processed into a product that will have a lower THC percentage (this is often referred to as “in-progress” hemp).
With many organizations highlighting the need to iron out ambiguities surrounding hemp laws, the 2023 Farm Bill may be the prime opportunity to do so. Including smart hemp production and cultivation policies in the 2023 Farm Bill has the potential to make the hemp industry more sustainable, inclusive, and profitable.
Author: Lynlee Derrick
We, at Inspirational Technologies are at the forefront of Inspirational and Frontrunners on the frontier of current technology. We are often faced with our own personal conflicts which directly influence our interactions with our peers and family.
When Inspirational Technologies is an endorsement of the “Cannabis” approach to the medical condition, we say, let’s let the look at the data and the people who say that they benefit for cannabis alternatives.
1st Hemp USA News is a resource of Inspirational Technologies (2021-2023)Inspirational Technologies (2023) AllRightsReservedYour ONE STOP BLOG FOR INFORMATION, EDUCATION, & INSPIRATION OF ESSENTIAL INNOVATION & RENOVATION of You-THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST*This site receives virtually no compensation for sales of some or all mentioned products. We however place humanitarian value over monetary interests. Our monetary income goes back into research, development, discovery and healing.Inspirational Technologies – is Committed to Your Health Wellness Beauty and EnrichmentReporting on Today’s Internal Botanical and Skin Product Benefits
4 Hemp Club was Inspired by Steven Smith’s vision to “Have an older generation 4H Club, where an older community of adults could carry on what the younger 4H Club envisioned.
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4 Hemp key points being Health Hope and Happiness, thru Hemp“.
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The majority of the psychedelics community has rarely made contact with the world of venture capital and high-growth startups.
This is dangerous because it doesn’t allow for those that work with psychedelic substances to understand what the next 10 years will bring their way… and as of right now the future doesn’t look too bright.
A Venture Capital (VC) firm, is in its simplest form just an entity that invests the money of rich folks into the companies that it believes will become the most financially valuable. There are of course other considerations for some investing groups such as: patient outcomes, environmental impact and sustainability, and general ESG methodologies. But for the most part VC firms work to provide a return, financial gain,to their investors by providing cash to startups that want to grow their business fast.
Let’s say that you are a psychotherapist who’s been running their own clinic for a few years. You were trained by MAPS to do psychedelic assisted therapy and have incorporated the service into your practice. Business is booming. Everyone wants access to your transformative care.
Perhaps you want to open up a second clinic where you can hire on some more therapists with the proper training, but you don’t have the money saved up yet to open up another location.
You could wait a few years, go to a bank to get a loan, or you could seek out an investment.
If you choose to go raise money for your venture you’ll be met with a lot of questions most of which will be pointed at one thing: scale. Most investors won’t put down capital for you to just open up one additional clinic. You’ll need to describe a vision of growing fast and scaling your brand to be the most impactful, widely distributed clinic on the planet.
Why? Because investors lose money on most investments that they make. Almost all of their returns are made from the few investments that knock it out of the park. The billion dollar unicorn that can grow their money more than 100x.
None of this is to say that good companies that can generate a high return don’t exist, but it’s very difficult to find that balance. Within our current system, companies need to compete with one another. That competition plays out through cutting costs, moving quickly, and oftentimes deprioritizing people, the environment, and quality.
It’s also very difficult to prioritize long term results. Every VC firm collects a new pool of money every few years called a fund. Most funds only run for 7 years, 10 years on the long end. Within 10 years you need to see a company sold off or going public for you to cash out and see the fruits of your investment. A company that has a 25 year mission to revolutionize patient care, but has to suffer losses for the first 10? Not going to happen.
As I mentioned earlier, there are strategies for forming firms around values, impact, and longer term results. But it’s extremely difficult. A firm can focus on investing in B Corps, but B Corp status is very time and resource intensive to pursue. There are a few companies in the space that have done it including MAPS and The Third Wave, but it’ll be a long road before we see a meaningful percentage of psychedelics companies adopt this style of doing business.
All of us from Auryn Fund, to Field Trip, to our own Tabula Rasa Ventures are trying hard to make sure that the future of this industry reflects the incredible community that’s built it. But we need to be having more open conversations along with detailed strategies for how to do investment right.
How to Raise Capital for a Psychedelic Startup: Industry Info You Need to Know
In the recent past, psychedelics were considered dangerous drugs. Today, more and more scientists recognize their medical potential. Investors are already investing in the young industry.
Psychedelic drugs have a complicated history. They had a heyday in the 1960s but then fell into disuse. Recent research has partially brought psychedelics back. Today, scientists see them as promising compounds for treating many diseases.
Given the above, it is quite fair to say that the era of the so-called psychedelic renaissance has begun. Since 2020, the number of psychedelic companies has started to increase greatly.
Let’s take a look at the reasons for the increased demand in the psychedelic industry. Learn how to raise capital dealing with this type of business.
Psychedelics Boom
Despite Covid-19 and the collapse of the economy, investors are starting to pay attention to this industry. They bet that psychedelic-derived drugs can become a real business and help millions of people. Researchers, activists, and journalists have been the driving force behind the psychedelic renaissance.
Benefits of Psychedelics
Many startup companies are developing drugs based on psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms), LSD, MDMA, and ibogaine. They are banned in the United States, except ketamine, which is also used in the development of such medicine. These companies hope to develop a psychedelic therapy treatment for a wide range of mental illnesses. They include depression, anxiety, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Medical regulators are also gradually turning toward psychedelics, as they show potential in treating depression. In 2019, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) called Usona Institute’s psilocybin program for major depressive disorder “breakthrough therapy.”
However, researchers will have a tough road to winning FDA approval.
How Medical Companies Turned to Psychedelics
In early 2020, the drug company Mind Medicine (MMEDF) went public. It received the financial backing of Kevin O’Leary and the guidance of cannabis entrepreneur Bruce Linton. In one interview, O’Leary explained his reasons for investing in psychedelics and talked about the lagging efforts to treat growing psychiatric disorders.
In 2013, Linton became a co-founder of Canopy Growth (CGC), the largest cannabis company in the U.S. He left in 2019 and later became director of Mind Medicine. The main goal of the company is similar to Compass Pathways. They plan to bring psychedelics to market and conduct research on LSD, mushrooms, and other drugs.
Investing in Psychedelics
Venture capital investors were at the centre of the psychedelic boom. In early 2020, startups in the field said they were beginning to see signs of growing investor appetite.
Venture capital firms focused on psychedelic companies soon began to appear. Insider’s list of the top 11 venture capitalists in the field shows $139.8 million invested in such startups in just a few years.
Kevin O’Leary and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel make big bets on magic mushrooms. Their big plans for mind-altering mushrooms have nothing to do with festivals or raves but deal with biotech instead.
Negev Capital, a psychedelic medical intervention investment fund, invests in companies that are developing new drugs to treat mental disorders based on psychedelic compounds. Negev has invested in 20 psychedelic drug development companies and has more than $30mln under the management
The fund recently doubled down on its substantial investment in Small Pharma Inc, a neuropharmaceutical company specialising in developing new treatments for mental illness with a focus on depression.
Another representative of psychedelic medicine is ATAI Life Sciences. It’s a “drug discovery platform” from Germany. The company invests in research of possible uses of psychedelics and other drugs for medical purposes. As of January 2021, they had raised more than $210 million, much of it from Thiel Capital and Christian Angermayer.
ATAI Life Sciences has taken a majority stake in Recognify, which was founded by Thomas Südhof, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Recognify’s aim is to develop drugs to help treat schizophrenia. The company focuses on cognitive impairments (CIAS) that interfere with verbal learning and memory. Their new drug, RL-007, although not derived from psychoactive compounds, has already undergone positive clinical trials.
Another company is Compass Pathways (CMPS), which went public in the United States back in September 2020. The British company, invested in by Thiel and Angermayer, has patented a synthetic form of psilocybin. It helps people with treatment-resistant depression.
The company launched clinical trials that involved 233 patients at several sites across Europe and North America. It is the most rigorous trial on psilocybin, which adds great weight to previous, smaller studies of the drug. In November 2018, FDA called the company’s treatment “breakthrough therapy.” This means the approval may come soon if trials are successful. Compass will start Phase 3 trials in the near future.
Cybin is a biotech company focused on the development of psychedelic therapeutics. In October 2021, it completed its 74th pre-clinical study of psychedelic compounds for potential therapeutic applications in several psychiatric disorders. Over 50 new compounds have been evaluated with the help of experienced contract research organizations.
The company seeks to build a portfolio of world-class psychedelic molecules that could become commercially viable drug candidates for both internal development and future partnerships.
The current psychedelic boom is only the beginning of the industry’s development and expansion. Considering investors’ attention to this type of medicine, more startups will emerge in the future. Active research on psychedelics has resumed in recent years, after its peak in the 1950s and 1970s. It may lead to great scientific progress and heal millions of people.
1st Hemp USA News is a resource of Inspirational Technologies (2021-2023)Inspirational Technologies (2023) AllRightsReservedYour ONE STOP BLOG FOR INFORMATION, EDUCATION, & INSPIRATION OF ESSENTIAL INNOVATION & RENOVATION of You-THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST*This site receives virtually no compensation for sales of some or all mentioned products. We however place humanitarian value over monetary interests. Our monetary income goes back into research, development, discovery and healing.Inspirational Technologies – is Committed to Your Health Wellness Beauty and EnrichmentReporting on Today’s Internal Botanical and Skin Product Benefits
4 Hemp Club was Inspired by Steven Smith’s vision to “Have an older generation 4H Club, where an older community of adults could carry on what the younger 4H Club envisioned.
Our 4H Platform Uses HEMP as an Agricultural Focal Point, deserving of research, development and with the
4 Hemp key points being Health Hope and Happiness, thru Hemp“.
Cannabis CBD and Me Inspirational Technologies Inspirational Technologies (2014) @Inspire123tech Background Noise Studios Logos bySteven M Smith
Many startup companies are developing drugs based on psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms), LSD, MDMA, and ibogaine. They are banned in the United States, except ketamine, which is also used in the development of such medicine. These companies hope to develop a psychedelic therapy treatment for a wide range of mental illnesses. They include depression, anxiety, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
1st Hemp USA News is a resource of Inspirational Technologies (2021-2022)Inspirational Technologies (2022) AllRightsReservedYour ONE STOP BLOG FOR INFORMATION, EDUCATION, & INSPIRATION OF ESSENTIAL INNOVATION & RENOVATION of You-THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST*This site receives virtually no compensation for sales of some or all mentioned products. We however place humanitarian value over monetary interests. Our monetary income goes back into research, development, discovery and healing.Inspirational Technologies – is Committed to Your Health Wellness Beauty and EnrichmentReporting on Today’s Internal Botanical and Skin Product Benefits
4 Hemp Club was Inspired by Steven Smith’s vision to
“Have an older generation 4H Club, where an older community of adults could carry on what the younger 4H Club envisioned.
Our 4H Platform Uses HEMP as an Agricultural Focal Point, deserving of research, development and with the
4 Hemp key points being Health Hope and Happiness, thru Hemp“.
Cannabis CBD and Me Inspirational Technologies Inspirational Technologies (2014) @Inspire123tech Background Noise Studios Logos by Steven M Smith
CBD (Cannabidiol) is a product of the Hemp Plant Flower.
Check Your History – Who said? “Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country – If people let the Government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under Tyranny”
Answer, to Follow:
HINT (Our Third President )
For nearly 3000 years Hemp has been our planet’s largest agricultural crop and the most important industry producing the fiber, paper, clothing, lighting fuel and medicine used by much of humanity. It is and has always been Earth’s’ most sustainable natural resource. With modern technological advances it is now possible to make over 20,000 types of products from medicine to houses to cellophane, dynamite and most importantly as an eco-friendly alternative to traditional plastics.
Pre Hemp Prohibition
768 BC King Charles the Great encourages growing of Hemp throughout his empire.
200 BC First paper invented in China – is made from Hemp.
1454 the Gutenberg Bible – the world’s first book printed on a moveable type printing press is printed on Hemp paper.
1533 King Henry 8th issued a royal proclamation which imposed a fine on any farmer that did not use some of his land for growing Hemp to supply the King’s Navy.
1619 America’s first Hemp law orders – all farmers MUST grow Hemp. Hemp is made a legal tender (ie. can be used to pay taxes)
1690 First American Paper Mill makes paper from Hemp. 1763 Additional laws in America make growing Hemp compulsory for all farmers.
1789 “Make the most of Indian Hemp Seed and sow it everywhere” – George Washington, 1st President of USA and Hemp Farmer.
1797 “We shall, by and by, want a world of Hemp more for our own consumption” – John Adams, 2nd President of USA and Hemp Farmer.
1801 “Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country – If people let the Government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under Tyranny” – Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of USA and Hemp Farmer.
1853 Levi Strauss & Co is founded in USA. The world’s first pair of jeans are made – Not from Hemp, as this is Urban Legend. However, in March, 2019, Levi’s did actually begin allowing manufacture of hemp jeans with its brand.
1897 Rudolph Diesel invents world’s first diesel engine which is designed to run on clean burning vegetable oils including Hemp Oil which does not cause pollution or create carbon buildup inside engines.
1930 Mellon, one of the most powerful bankers in USA. Mellon plus two other bankers Rockefeller and Carnegie had significant investments in Oil, Paper, Synthetic F
iber, Petrochemical Plastics and Pharmaceuticals – all of which were about to be made obsolete by technological advancements in Hemp processing.
1937 US Congress approves a bill that prohibits the cultivation of all Cannabis including Hemp.
1938 Popular Mechanics magazine article titled “New Billion Dollar Crop” announces the arrival of the new Hemp processing technology that was set to make Hemp America’s #1 commodity had it not been prohibited.
Publication Year:
1938
Popular Mechanics describes hemp as the new billion dollar crop. The article was actually written in the spring of 1937, before cannabis was criminalized. Also in February 1938, Mechanical Engineering calls hemp the most profitable and desirable crop that can be grown.
Google Books: (1938) Popular Mechanics: Billion Dollar
1941 Henry Ford finishes making a car built almost entirely from Hemp and which ran on clean burning Hemp fuel. The car being 30% lighter than steel cars therefore required less fuel. Its lightweight bioplastic body panels were many times stronger than steel – could not be dented with a sledge hammer. “Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the Hemp Fields?” – Henry Ford
1942 US Government cannot take part in World War 2 without Hemp for military clothing and equipment so a campaign is launched to encourage and reward US farmers for growing Hemp with a PR video titled Hemp For Victory.
Hemp Prohibition
1945 At the end of World War 2 the US Government begins its campaign against Hemp and claims there never was a video called Hemp For Victory.
When US soldiers return from Europe they are ordered to put their Hemp uniforms back on and are sent out to American farms to burn all the Hemp crops.
1961 Henry Anslinger attended the United Nations and persuaded the UN to have Hemp cultivation prohibited in 150 countries worldwide.
As a consequence most of the world’s food, fiber, fuel and medicine went from being made organically by farmers to being produced chemically under the control of the Pharmaceutical and Petrochemical industries.
Hemp Legalization Begins Again
1996 Canada legalizes growing of Hemp which creates employment and hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue for the Canadian people.
2014 Section 7606 of the 2014 Farm Bill authorized hemp research and pilot programs by state departments of agriculture and institutions of higher education. Some states have licensed farmers to conduct pilot programs and research on hemp.
In 2017 there were 19 states that allowed hemp to be grown.
2018 Farm Bill
December 2018 – The Farm Bill Legalized Hemp
The 2018 Farm Bill, enacted December 20, 2018, builds upon many of the crucial programs that serve America’s agricultural producers. USDA is implementing this new bill, which includes seeking public input on programs and provisions and designing guidelines. In the meantime, programs authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill are available to serve producers now.
The 2018 Farm Bill reclassified hemp, and it is now legal to grow industrial hemp.
2021 USDA HEMP RULES
U.S. Domestic Hemp Production Program The U.S. Domestic Hemp Production Program establishes federal regulatory oversight of the production of hemp in the United States.
The United States of Hemp Hemp and marijuana are both produced from the cannabis plant, although hemp is derived from a strain that has a much lower quantity of THC, the compound that produces hallucinogenic effects.
Hemp is made from the fibers of the plant and historically has been used to make a broad variety of products, from rope to cloth to paper.
As you can imagine, it was an important product in the New World as the American colonies were being established.
It was so important, in fact, that in 1619, Virginia passed a law requiring hemp to be grown on every farm in the colony. At the time, the crop was also considered a proper form of currency in Virginia, as well as Pennsylvania and Maryland.
As new products were imported or developed to replace hemp—cotton was surely a welcome change to the itchy fibers of hemp shirts—the plant fell out of popularity.
By the end of the Civil War, the United States’ hemp production had passed its peak, but a different version of the plant was on the rise. Marijuana was becoming an increasingly popular ingredient in medicines and tinctures. The Rise of Reefer Madness The popular image of the 1950s may be all Leave It to Beaver, but underneath the pearls and penny loafers, there was a countercultural movement bubbling to the surface.
The Beat Generation emerged early in the decade, when a group of young people began to unite in their rejection of conventional society in favor of artistic and bohemian ideals. The Beatniks also enjoyed experimenting with drugs, particularly marijuana
. But the Beats weren’t the first group to embrace weed. The drug started gaining traction in the U.S. in the 1910s after Mexican refugees brought marijuana with them as they fled the violence of the Mexican Revolution. In the 1930s, it became popular among the hepsters, the black jazz community made up of “hep cats” like jazz singer Cab Calloway, who had a hit with his song “Reefer Man.”
The Roots of Criminalization The process of criminalizing marijuana had already begun, even before the Beats took up the cannabis cause. The roots of this movement are mired in a racism that still persists in how drug policies are carried out in the U.S. today.
In the 1930s, Prohibition was repealed in the middle of the Great Depression. Straight-laced bureaucrats looking for another target turned their attention to marijuana, which, at the time, was mostly being used in the Mexican and black communities. They painted the drug—and the communities using it—as a threat to the already crippled country and began the process of banning it.
Twenty-nine states had outlawed marijuana by 1931, and in 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act was passed, essentially making the plant illegal in the United States.
Since then, lawmakers have been doing a do-si-do with the drug. Over the decades, stricter enforcement and the passing of mandatory sentencing laws have traded off with repeals of those laws and efforts at legalization.
Today, 17 states have legalized marijuana (with many more allowing medical marijuana), but, as far as the federal government is concerned, the drug is still cannabis non grata.
1st Hemp USA News is a resource of Inspirational Technologies (2021-2022)Inspirational Technologies (2022) AllRightsReservedYour ONE STOP BLOG FOR INFORMATION, EDUCATION, & INSPIRATION OF ESSENTIAL INNOVATION & RENOVATION of You-THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST*This site receives virtually no compensation for sales of some or all mentioned products. We however place humanitarian value over monetary interests. Our monetary income goes back into research, development, discovery and healing.Inspirational Technologies – is Committed to Your Health Wellness Beauty and EnrichmentReporting on Today’s Internal Botanical and Skin Product Benefits
4 Hemp Club was Inspired by Steven Smith’s vision to
“Have an older generation 4H Club, where an older community of adults could carry on what the younger 4H Club envisioned.
Our 4H Platform Uses HEMP as an Agricultural Focal Point, deserving of research, development and with the
4 Hemp key points being Health Hope and Happiness, thru Hemp“.
Cannabis CBD and Me Inspirational Technologies Inspirational Technologies (2014) @Inspire123tech Background Noise Studios Logos by Steven M Smith
Well, it is the crop of the future (and the past), it will soon be in high demand and it has the potential to be an economic genie in a bottle. Hemp takes half the water that wheat does, and provides four times the income. Hemp is giving farming families in the climate change era.—
There’s a new hemp trend sweeping the nation and it has nothing to do with those beaded friendship bracelets from the ‘90s.
Twenty-three states have now enacted pro-industrial hemp legislation (Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie signed the latest bill this past week), making the cousin crop to marijuana a national phenomenon. Since the beginning of the year, more than 70 bills related to hemp have been introduced in more than half of the country’s states. Passage of the recent Farm Bill, which legalized the crop for research purposes, further cleared the way for industrial hemp production.
Hemp, which is the same species as marijuana (Cannabis sativa) but contains little to no THC, was grown widely in America before anti-drug sentiment helped make it unpopular in the 1950s. Today, however, the nation’s turning tide on marijuana means its “sober cousin“ is also making a comeback.
Hemp policy is “not just turning a corner,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) told The Huffington Post earlier this year. “It’s turning a corner and running downhill.”
So what’s with America’s new obsession with hemp? Below, 9 reasons this wonder crop is sweeping the nation, almost all of which are rooted in the crop’s sustainable and environmentally-friendly characteristics:
1. It’s a farmer’s best friend
Not only does hemp grow in a variety of climates and soil types, it also grows very tightly spaced (decreasing land use) and has a fast growing rate (which leads to high yields). Farmers in Canada are reportedly making $300-per-acre profits from growing hemp. Moreover, because the crop improves soil health (see below), farmers can grow food crops immediately after a hemp harvest without a fallow period.
2. It’s an environmentalist’s best friend
Ever wonder where the nickname “weed” comes from? The hemp plant grows like one, obviating the need for most pesticides (it is naturally resistant to most pests), herbicides, fungicides and thriving on less water than most crops. Because of its resiliency, it has also been flagged as a natural way to clean up soil pollution. Using a process called phyto-remediation, hemp was used at Chernobyl to harmlessly extract toxins and pollutants from the soil and groundwater. Hemp actually absorbs CO2 while it grows through natural photosynthesis, making it carbon-negative from the get-go.
3. It can compete with cotton
Hemp has been used as a fabric since time immemorial. As a textile, hemp is durable, comes in a variety of natural colors based on how it is processed from the plant, and has “a wonderful drape, comparable to linen,” according to Patagonia. Plus, it needs approximately half as much land and half as much water as cotton does to thrive.
4. It’s a “superfood”
Hemp seeds are used in a variety of health foods, including hemp seed butters, hemp seed energy bars, hemp oil and even hemp seed milks. The seeds have a nutty flavor and are regarded as a superfood since they are high in omega-3 fatty acids and complete protein.
5. It could save the trees
Hemp pulp has been used to create paper for at least 2,000 years, including a draft of the Declaration of Independence, but it is currently significantly pricier to process than wood pulp. If processing costs come down, however, hemp pulp could conceivably replace wood pulp, creating a more durable, sustainable and recyclable paper. Moreover, hemp’s low lignin content and naturally light color mean that fewer chemicals and less bleach would be needed to pulp and color hemp paper.
6. It can be made into bio-fuel
A 2009 study from the University of Connecticut’s Biofuel Consortium found that hemp seed oil made a “viable and even attractive“ feedstock for producing biodiesel. Hemp biodiesel proved to be high efficiency (97 percent of the hemp oil was converted to biodiesel) and could even be used at lower temperatures than other biodiesels.
7. We can make carbon-neutral buildings with it
Lovingly called “hempcrete,” hemp fiber can be mixed with lime to create carbon-neutral building supplies, including insulation, pressboard, flooring and wall construction. Hempcrete is energy-efficient, non-toxic and resistant to mold, insects and fire. Moreover, it is easier to work with than concrete and just as strong.
9. It could make America a lot of money
Currently, America imports most of its hemp seed and hemp oil from China and Canada. In 2011, the U.S. imported $11.5 million worth of hemp products, up from $1.4 million in 2000. With the laws against industrial hemp changing, however, the U.S. has a chance to create domestic jobs and capitalize on the growing market. Some estimates value the U.S. industrial hemp market at $500 million per year; Canada’s hemp industry is reportedly going to break a billion dollars this year in earnings.
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envisioned. Our Platform Uses HEMP as an Agricultural
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4 Hemp key points Hemp Health Hope and Happiness.”
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