Hemp has friends in high places, namely Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. But the crop he championed in an attempt to boost ailing agriculture is at a low point. Farmers and manufacturers who wanted to capitalize on the frenzy around CBD, which comes from hemp, were lured into the industry after Congress passed the 2018 farm bill. It legalized cultivation of the crop, a low-potency sibling of marijuana. Hemp acreage in the U.S. more than tripled from 2018 to 2019.
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They have high hopes for a coronavirus breakthrough. A team of Canadian scientists believes it has found strong strains of cannabis that could help prevent or treat coronavirus infections, according to interviews and a study. Researchers from the University of Lethbridge said a study in April showed at least 13 cannabis plants were high in CBD that appeared to affect the ACE2 pathways that the bug uses to access the body. “We were totally stunned at first, and then we were really happy,” one of the researchers, Olga Kovalchuk, told CTV News. The results, printed in online journal Preprints, indicated hemp extracts high in CBD may help block proteins that provide a “gateway” for COVID-19 to enter host cells.
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Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed legislation on Thursday that decriminalizes marijuana possession, joining a majority of states that have ceased treating the drug as a criminal offense. The new law, which goes into effect July 1, is the latest progressive action taken by state Democrats since taking full control of Virginia's government in November for the first time in more than two decades. On Thursday, Northam, a Democrat, signed Senate Bill 2 and House Bill 972, creating a civil penalty of no more than $25 for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, with no jail time. Under current Virginia law, possession of marijuana is punishable by a maximum fine of $500 and a maximum 30-day jail sentence for a first offense.
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When Illinois legalized hemp planting in 2018, nearly 600 farmers began growing a plant that had not been cultivated since WWII, and they had high hopes. But, in the short term, the boom has gone bust. Andy Huston, who began growing hemp in 2014 under the aegis of research, said that a lack of infrastructure, incomplete USFDA guidelines and the COVID-19 pandemic, have put a damper on the industry. As the price has plummeted from $40 a pound to $5 or $6, about half of those who planted last year have decided they cannot afford to do so again. Snags exist in both sides of the industry: cultivation for CBD oil, and the “fiber” sector, which is everything from textiles to concrete to byproducts used for cattle feed.
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May 21, 2020
Canada’s Aurora Cannabis surges after making a CBD deal to enter the lucrative U.S. market
Aurora Cannabis has agreed to buy U.S.-based CBD company Reliva, giving the struggling Canadian company a business foothold in America. Shares of Aurora closed off nearly 13% ahead of the Wednesday afternoon announcement. The stock surged higher in after-hours trading. However, over the past 12 months, Aurora has lost nearly 90% of its stock market value as of Wednesday’s close. “It’s immediate access into the world’s largest cannabinoid market,” Aurora Executive Chairman and interim CEO Michael Singer told CNBC’s Frank Holland. “I think the Reliva acquisition is a responsible strategic entry into the U.S. market; and for Aurora, delivers a key aspect of our reset plan.”
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May 20, 2020
Louisiana Lawmakers Advance Three Marijuana Reform Bills In One Day, Including Cannabis Banking
Louisiana lawmakers advanced three marijuana reform bills on Wednesday, and that includes legislation that would dramatically expand the state’s medical cannabis program and offer protections for banks that service marijuana businesses. House-passed legislation to allow physicians to recommend medical cannabis to patients for any debilitating condition that they deem fit was approved by the Senate Health and Welfare Committee in a 5-1 vote. Under current law there are only 14 conditions that qualify patients for marijuana. The bill now heads to the full Senate. Another bill introduced by Rep. Edmond Jordan (D) to protect banks and credit unions that service cannabis...
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Coming into 2020, policymakers in eight states expressed support for regulated medical or adult-use cannabis sales, and advocacy groups in nine states had efforts underway to include legalization on ballots in November. With cannabis already legal for medical use in 33 states; legal for medical and adult-use in 11 states; and more members of Congress – even those who previously opposed legalization – now supporting cannabis policy, state legalization agendas were moving quickly. But what was set to be a banner year for the cannabis industry has been slowed down by COVID-19. Nevertheless, COVID-19 has shown legal, regulated marijuana’s place as an “essential business,” even if state legislative activity may not come until 2021 or later. COVID-19 has shortened and reprioritized many states’ legislative sessions, eliminating time to hammer out crucial details of cannabis legalization laws, such as establishing a robust tax structure and ensuring compliance to decrease the illicit market. Already, at least five state legislatures considering legalizing cannabis in 2020 – such as New York – are expressing doubts they still can this year. In Arkansas, North Dakota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Idaho, and Nebraska advocacy groups had to pause efforts to gather ballot signatures due to social distancing rules. In Montana, a county district judge even ruled against using e-signatures in place of in-person signing. Additionally, cannabis legalization measures tend to appear on ballots during presidential election years – when voter turnout is higher – leaving legalization by vote efforts to 2024. The effects of the coronavirus pandemic cut both ways for the cannabis industry. Some businesses are cutting jobs, selling operations, are unable to remain open or are have constrained by social distancing rules, and are eligible for federal stimulus funds. Other cannabis businesses are resilient and have hired thousands of new employees across a half dozen states since the coronavirus began. In March, weekly sales topped $134 million in California, Washington, Nevada, and Colorado, a 17% increase from the weekly average in 2019. And Metrc’s track-and-trace data shows an almost 75% increase in system bandwidth usage since October 2019. Despite facing setbacks in the face of COVID-19, the cannabis industry still has economic potential for states looking to increase revenues and create news to pad budget shortfalls projected to reach $350 billion in 2021. While cannabis tax revenue would not cover all losses, it would help states build revenue in the coming years. For example, Colorado has raked in over $1.2 billion in legal cannabis revenue since 2014 and California’s legal cannabis market generated $635 million in state and local tax revenues in 2019.
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A bipartisan coalition of 34 state and territory attorneys general, including Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, is urging Congress to pass coronavirus relief legislation that includes a provision to protect banks that serve marijuana businesses from being penalized by federal regulators. The case they lay out runs directly counter to seemingly coordinated statements by GOP lawmakers in opposition to the banking provision’s inclusion in legislation the Democratic-led House passed on Friday. In a letter to House and Senate leadership Tuesday, the top state law enforcement officials said there are three main reasons that providing the cannabis industry with banking access is especially necessary during the pandemic. First, the public safety threat of operating on a largely cash-only basis has been exacerbated amid the crisis. Second, large cash transactions “places law enforcement, tax regulators, consumers, and patients at heightened risk of exposure to the virus.” Third, access to financial institutions would make it easier to collect tax revenue from marijuana sales, which is particularly needed to offset economic shortfalls due to the health crisis.
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May 20, 2020
USDA Denies Coronavirus Benefits For Hemp Farmers But Later Seems To Reverse Reevaluation Block
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on Tuesday that hemp growers are specifically ineligible for a coronavirus relief program it’s running. But hours after Marijuana Moment reported that the department also singled out hemp as being specifically ineligible for any reevaluation, the government removed that language from the initial notice. The stated reason for the crop’s exclusion is because it found hemp prices did not suffer a five percent or greater decline from January to April. USDA originally made the notable decision to exclude hemp as one of only two commodities that wouldn’t receive a reevaluation of eligibility even if “credible evidence” surfaced that the crop’s market did experience such declines. The other was tobacco. The list of ineligible commodities includes “sheep more than two years old, eggs/layers, soft red winter wheat, hard red winter wheat, white wheat, rice, flax, rye, peanuts, feed barley, Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton, alfalfa, forage crops, hemp, and tobacco,” the department said in notice about its Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). Initially USDA included this line in the notice: “However, for all commodities except for hemp and tobacco, USDA may reconsider the excluded commodities if credible evidence is provided that supports a five percent price decline.” Now the line has been revised to state: “USDA may reconsider the excluded commodities if credible evidence is provided that supports a five percent price decline.” CFAP is a $19 billion immediate relief program that “includes direct support to agricultural producers.” It was established as part of the first approved COVID-19 package passed by Congress. Hemp industry advocates have expressed disappointment over USDA’s action, arguing that like any other industry, the hemp market is experiencing unique challenges amid the pandemic and shouldn’t be written off from this program.
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May 19, 2020
Why Marijuana Legalization Hasn’t Ended Reefer Madness: The Los Angeles “Hash Oil Factory” That Isn’t
The cause of the enormous explosion and fire that destroyed a downtown Los Angeles building on Saturday evening and sent 12 firefighters to the hospital is not yet known. As for the effects, they were immediate, decisive — and entirely predictable. A culprit was identified even before arson investigators’ work could begun. The culprit, as initial media reports suggested, was cannabis, a theory that anti-legalization zealots amplified into a howl by Monday. By extension, that means the ongoing social experiment of marijuana legalization is the accomplice, and scenes like Saturday’s carnage in LA the logical conclusion for any other city or state pondering legal weed. This all sounds familiar, because it is. And though it may be weeks or longer before arson investigators piece together the actual cause, the lesson for drug-policy reform advocates and anyone in the cannabis industry is that baked-in anti-drug biases will take much longer than that to fade away — and you can do everything right and still suffer a setback in the information wars.
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