Tag: industrial hemp

Florida Lawmakers Pass Bill To Restrict Hemp Products And Ban Delta-8 THC, Sending It To DeSantis’s Desk

The Florida Legislature has approved a bill to regulate hemp-derived products in the state and eliminate delta-8 THC, which is banned in 17 states and severely restricted in seven more—though it is a popular item sold in retail establishments and people have used it for chronic illnesses.

Both chambers approved the legislation on Wednesday.

The Florida Senate passed the measure (SB 1698), sponsored by Polk County Republican Colleen Burton, unanimously, 39-0. That vote came just a few hours after a more contested vote in the House, where it was approved on a 64-48 vote.

For the past two years, the Legislature has worked on attempting to regulate the amount of THC in hemp-derived products. THC is the main component in cannabis that provides the psychoactive or “high” effect. The measure also bans the sale of all delta-8 products, one of the most popular items sold in retail establishments throughout the state over the past four years. And it also prohibits businesses from possessing hemp extract products that are considered “attractive” to children.

The measure says that the THC cannot exceed 5 milligrams per serving or 50 milligrams per package. Burton and the sponsor of the measure in the House, Manatee County’s Tommy Gregory, had originally set the limits at 2 milligrams per serving and 10 milligrams per package, but Gregory amended the limits earlier this week after taking input from the hemp industry.

Yet many of those who work in the hemp business in Florida say that those slightly increased THC caps are not going to be sufficient in terms of sustaining their economic vitality.

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Hemp Industry Pushes Congress To Hold FDA Accountable With Hearing On CBD Regulation Inaction

A coalition of hemp industry organizations are calling on a House committee to hold a hearing addressing the ongoing lack of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations for products made with constituents of the crop such as CBD.

In a letter addressed to House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders, 28 state and national  nonprofits focused on hemp and dietary supplements said that “the time for a hearing has never been riper” to examine regulatory pathways that FDA could enact to allow for the lawful marketing of hemp products for humans and animals.

“In the more than five years since the legalization of hemp through the 2018 Farm Bill, in spite of a designated annual appropriation, the FDA has taken no meaningful steps toward the regulation of hemp—whether it be animal feed or extracts for human consumption like CBD,” the groups said.

FDA said last year that, after an extensive review, it determined that it lacked necessary authority to establish regulations for the hemp and CBD market, stating that it will require additional congressional support.

“Meanwhile, thousands of unregulated products continue to be sold, causing great consumer confusion and advantaging bad actors via-a-vis good faith manufacturers who want to play by the rules and offer healthy products,” the letter says.

The House Energy and Commerce and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee responded to FDA’s inaction last summer by putting out a Request for Information (RIF) from experts on the best path forward for regulating hemp, with hundreds of respondents sharing their perspective and recommendations.

“By now, your staff has had months to review and consider these recommendations,” the organizations said in the new letter, adding that “Energy & Commerce must weigh in for there to be meaningful action.”

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New York Governor Vetoes Bills To Allow Hemp Seed In Animal Feed, Calling On State To Collect ‘More Information’ On Safety

The governor of New York has vetoed a pair of bills that would have allowed hemp seeds to be included in animal feed for pets, horses and camelids such as llamas and alpacas—citing a lack of information about the safety of such uses, which she wants the state to study in an “expeditious manner.”

The Senate and Assembly passed the legislation months ago, but the bills were only formally transmitted to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) late last month. While she’s strongly advocated for the state’s hemp industry, the governor said in a veto message on Friday that the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet approved adding hemp seed to animal feed, and so “more information is required.”

“To that end, I am directing the Department of Agriculture and Markets to work with Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to research the impacts of the use of hemp seed or hemp seed products in animal feed,” Hochul wrote. “This study is to be completed in an expeditious manner to better inform the industry on the questions raised by the potential for expanded use of hemp products.”

The now-vetoed measures specified that the industrial hemp seed that could be added to certain animal feed included seed hulls and seed meal. Supporters said that the cannabis products could be a nutritious additive that’s high in protein and fiber.

The legislation was similar to measures that have been enacted in Montana and Pennsylvania, and it’s backed by the National Hemp Association.

“Protecting industrial hemp production in New York will encourage greater production and research into the myriad uses of this plant, including as a renewable building material,” the text says. “It will also open the door for small, New York-based animal food processors to establish this marketplace before hemp seeds are authorized far use in commercial feed nationally.”

A fiscal note says that the legislation could ultimately increase tax revenue for the state because of “increased sales of New York hemp seed product and commercial feed.”

The bills would not have extended the hemp seed additive authorization to other commercial livestock, presumably due to regulatory complications related to adding items to feed for animals that are used for human consumption.

That said, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently found that cows that are fed hempseed cake retain very low concentrations of THC and CBD in their bodies, indicating that meat products from hemp-fed cattle are safe for human consumption.

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With Oklahoma’s Hemp Production ‘Way Down,’ Lawmakers Consider Benefits Of Expansion

Oklahoma legislators are studying whether industrial hemp production would benefit rural development in the state.

Growing hemp became legal in Oklahoma after Congress passed the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed industrial hemp from the Controlled Substances Act’s classification of marijuana and declassified hemp as a Schedule I narcotic.

While there was a lot of initial interest in 2018, Oklahoma has seen a decline in interest from potential growers since then, according to Kenny Naylor, the director of Consumer Affairs for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture.

“Unfortunately our numbers have gone way down,” Naylor told the Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee Monday. “In 2018, everybody wanted to grow hemp.”

As of this year, Oklahoma has 21 licensed hemp growers and 22 licensed hemp processors.

Aside from a saturation of the CBD market and limited processing ability, which have both cooled the interest in growing hemp, according to Naylor, other factors were a matter of bad timing.

“I think COVID-19 hit right at the wrong time and shut everything down, and that definitely caused problems,” said Naylor. “And then for Oklahoma specifically, people switched to marijuana.”

It was initially cheaper to get licensed to grow medical marijuana, though Naylor said he doesn’t believe that is the case anymore.

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Hemp Batteries are Eight Times More Powerful than Lithium, Scientists Discover

Is there anything hemp can’t do? A year after hemp became legal to grow in the United States, we’ve seen its power to make better clothing, better buildings and better medicine.

Now, there’s something else hemp appears to be better at – making batteries.

Most auto batteries today are made from lithium-ion, an expensive, quickly disappearing material.

A team of American and Canadian researchers have developed a battery that could be used in cars and power tools using hemp bast fiber – the inner bark of the plant that usually ends up in landfill.

They “cooked” the woody pulp and processed them into carbon nanosheets, which they used to build supercapacitors “on a par with or better than graphene” – the industry gold standard.

Graphene is a synthetic carbon material lighter than foil yet bulletproof, but it is prohibitively expensive to make.

“People ask me: why hemp? I say, why not?” inventor David Mitlin tells the BBC.

“We’re making graphene-like materials for a thousandth of the price – and we’re doing it with waste.”

Mitlin, a professor of chemical engineering at Clarkson University in New York, first published a description of his team’s battery in the journal ACS Nano in 2014.

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