Under President Joe Biden, the hemp industry has a huge expectations of flourishing, with producers seeing prospects in the president’s sustainability strategy and feeling hopeful that Legislative action on high-THC cannabis would open more possibilities for hemp investors. But most of its most major challenges, particularly the legality of over-the-counter best CBD flower and other products, are still waiting for answers from the industry. Hemp farmers and producers of cannabis still have big concerns on how the administration would view new regulations on hemp cultivation and cannabinoid extraction.
Medical and Recreational Marijuana, Hemp, Inc.’s latest division, is also on track to join the cannabis industry in 2021 once marijuana is fully regulated across the country. As per Perlowin, marijuana firms would be more accessible and approved by banks and merchant account providers. The banking laws for marijuana businesses are very draconian right now. I knew too many banks were closing accounts merely because they were connected to the industry. Anyway, we don’t know whether we’re all going to wait for legalizing marijuana, but that decision won’t negate the construction of infrastructure and planning for it. After regulation happens and huge marijuana development is ongoing, owing to our industry experience, this division will already be placed as the ‘go-to’ advisor,’ Perlowin said.
The enthusiasm reflects the fact that the long-understood environmental benefits of hemp have not turned into a booming business; cannabinoid production came to lead the hemp industry.
However, with government dollars generating a financial incentive, the environmental impacts of hemp might draw interest beyond the crop. “Rather than a theoretical possibility, the opportunity to leverage the benefits of hemp to sequester carbon from the atmosphere and remedy toxins from the soil could actually become such a working reality,” Texas cannabis lawyer Lisa Pittman told Hemp Industry Daily in an email. Likewise, the potential for the oil and gas industry to use seized carbons for credits for use could become an appealing requirement instead of an interesting project. These carbons can be captured in many ways, so the (research and development) in this area will be fascinating.
In the Biden administration, maybe the biggest question mark facing the hemp business is how the FDA will handle the industry. Since 2019, the department has been updating CBD policy but retains that it is not necessary to market any cannabis extracts outside of medicinal channels. Prudent hemp operators can now prepare how they can perform if changes are wished for by the cannabis industry within the next four years, Pittman said.
“It is very probable that the rising popularity of hemp-CBD and other hemp cannabinoids will decline in preference of full THC options for the whole plant, and extraction techniques and CBD:THC proportions will be even more sophisticated by then,” said Pittman. “Hemp players in the supplement space also should plan how they will survive in a potential price for purchasable hemp products regulated by the FDA, which also competes with commonly accessible legalized cannabis.”
