Canadian cannabis company starts US hemp firm, citing looser regulations

Noting hemp’s relaxed oversight compared to marijuana, a Canadian cannabis company has launched a new hemp company and signed a $500,000 CBD deal with a Kentucky hemp producer.

Ascent Industries announced the creation of Thirty Eight Hemp Co. to produce CBD products for sale in the United States.

Vancouver, British Columbia-based Ascent also inked a deal to acquire high-CBD hemp and other hemp biomass from AgTech Scientific, which is located north of Lexington, Kentucky.

The deal calls for Ascent to pay AgTech $500,000. In return, AgTech will supply up to 25% of its hemp biomass production containing greater than 10% CBD to Thirty Eight Hemp Co.

There are no minimum quantities of hemp required under the deal.

Ascent COO Reid Parr, in an interview on YouTube, cited the looser regulations facing hemp production in the U.S. as a reason to start the new subsidiary.

“We can actually get access to some of these (cannabinoid) compounds that are produced in environments that are not as stringently regulated as cannabis is,” Parr said.

The new hemp company comes less than a month after another Ascent subsidiary, Agrima Botanicals, became the first Canadian licensed cannabis producer in four years to have its license suspended by Health Canada.

Agrima attributed the suspension to recordkeeping and compliance issues.

Ascent trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange as ASNT.