Energized by the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and places federal regulatory authority with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), states have been readying their hemp cultivation regulatory plans for approval. But those next steps were put on hold on this week when... Read more
GW Pharmaceuticals, the drugmaker behind the only federally approved CBD product, is still losing money, though it says it’s happy with early sales of its seizure control drug Epidiolex. Last summer, Epidiolex became the first cannabis-derived treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, prompting the U.S. Drug... Read more
In two separate meetings over the past two days, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration offered a glimpse of potential CBD regulations to come and promised an April hearing to start work. FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told state agriculture regulators that products not approved by the FDA and marketed... Read more
Every day, our Government Relations team is keeping our finger on the pulse of what’s happening on the Hill and how it affects our industry. In this case, we have important news from D.C. about movement to fix the banking crisis faced by cannabis industry operators. Watch this video... Read more
As our readers saw in last week’s blog, this month has been a milestone for cannabis banking reform. Earlier this month, the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions held its first ever hearing on marijuana and financial services, entitled: Challenges and Solutions: Access to Banking Services for Cannabis-Related... Read more
A Colorado CBD company seeking the release of hemp seized in Idaho has been granted an appeal from a federal court, but it could be months before the case is resolved. Big Sky Scientific said that nearly 7,000 pounds of industrial hemp seized in Idaho last month was taken unlawfully under... Read more
North Dakota’s highest court has decided not to rule on the legality of hemp-derived CBD, upholding a drug conviction for a vape-shop owner who sold CBD. The court said that the retailer, Falesteni A. Abu Hamda, should have made his CBD argument earlier instead of accepting the state’s case against... Read more
A California hemp seed company and a traditional agriculture biotech firm have been tapped to breed improved industrial hemp cultivars for California. California Hemp Corp., based in Oakdale, and Benson Hill Biosystems, a Missouri crop-improvement company, have partnered in a sponsored research agreement with the University of California, Davis (UC... Read more
(This is an abridged version of a story that appears in the February issue of Marijuana Business Magazine.) The CBD industry is in desperate need of an idiot-proof way to distinguish legal CBD from illegal varieties derived from marijuana. Could the solution be found in Utah? The conservative western state... Read more
Two large cannabis companies said Monday they are investing in developing their own lines of hemp-derived products by opening subsidiary companies. Chicago-based Cresco Labs, a vertically integrated, multistate cannabis operator, is opening Well Beings to offer a full line of hemp-derived products eligible for national distribution, as well as CBD... Read more
