Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
As lawmakers consider a bill that would strip would-be hemp growers of their newly issued licenses, the farmers say they have just as much right as outdoor marijuana growers to farm and sell the plant in Oregon.
They’re trying to grow for some of the same patients, after all.
Several recipients of Oregon’s 13 hemp licenses, including one of two from Bend, say their primary goal is to grow the plant - a non-psychoactive relative of marijuana - for CBD, an oil extracted from hemp plants that has qualities to help with symptoms suffered by patients with cancer, seizures and other ailments. Hemp is also used in food products and textiles.
Some are miffed lawmakers waited until the start of what would be Oregon’s inaugural hemp season to address concerns raised both by medical marijuana growers who worry cross-pollination will ruin their crops and by attorneys who say farmers are at risk of federal criminal penalties without a quick change in state law.
Many on both sides agree the Legislature is taking the right path in addressing hemp as the state moves closer to a time when cannabis will be legal for recreational and medicinal use and widespread farming.
“We can work together as a team with these marijuana growers,” said Lynn Foutch, from Benton County, who received a license to grow industrial hemp.
Michael Hughes, a Bend attorney whose family has a history of growing hemp in Nebraska, said he’s been breeding and researching hemp for two decades, the last three years in Oregon. He plans to grow and harvest the plant for CBD oil as soon as he’s able to put plants in the ground.
But unless the Legislature reaches a compromise on concerns raised both by hemp farmers eager to grow the plant and medical marijuana growers worried about contamination, there may not be a harvest in Oregon.
“The fact that we’re addressing it now seems very unfair to the people who have industrial hemp licenses,” Hughes said.
Hughes said fields of hemp can create tremendous amounts of pollen, and that the potential for cross-contamination between the two plants is a real concern without rules in place to try and prevent it.
Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, has proposed banning outdoor hemp and marijuana farms from being within 5 miles of each other as a way to prevent cross-contamination, which would wreck the THC levels in marijuana plants and CBD levels in hemp plants.
Buckley says he’s not pitting growers against one another, but is instead trying to find a way to let both industries thrive without encroaching on one another and without interference from the federal government.
“I do understand that it’s been a long wait for farmers who want to grow hemp and I understand why they might be impatient, but we have to ask for a little more patience to make sure we’re doing it right,” Buckley said in an interview this week with The Bulletin.
Courtney Moran, a Portland attorney who is considered an expert on hemp, said Buckley’s proposed 5-mile buffer zone is nearly 2 miles wider than necessary, and would effectively prevent hemp growing in Southern Oregon, home to a disproportionate number of medical marijuana growers, based on population.
“The proposal for 5 miles, that’s really just to squash the industrial hemp industry specifically in Southern Oregon,” Moran said, adding “I do not want any medical marijuana grows affected by this … The 3.5-mile (buffer) is enough.”
Other components of an amendment to Buckley’s bill - which was scheduled for a vote in committee but postponed Wednesday - would undo rules created over a five-year stretch by the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
After finishing the rules in January, the department gave hemp licenses to 13 prospective farmers. But the new rules didn’t comply with new federal guidelines that require all hemp programs to be run through the university system or through the state Department of Agriculture.
Amendments to Buckley’s bill would create a necessary research component and therefore protect farmers who’ve already planted hemp from interference from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
Another amendment would require only female plants to be grown outside and the seed- and pollen-producing males grown inside, as is sometimes done with root vegetables for similar reasons.
Other amendments to Buckley’s bill would also require any hemp license-holders who have already planted in Southern Oregon to till up their land. The state would repay them for losses.
Once the state sorts out the issue, it may find many more growers looking to plant hemp next year.
“The profit margin in high-CBD hemp is much more than textiles. What I would worry about is, there’s definitely going to be a critical level market supply and demand,” said Adam Jacques, who runs the Growers Guild Gardens and CBD Oregon, which supplies CBD oil for patients.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Can pot and hemp growers get along?; Lawmakers looking for compromise among industries as farmers eager to grow
Author: Taylor W. Anderson
Contact: Contact Us
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Can pot and hemp growers get along?; Lawmakers looking for compromise among industries as farmers eager to grow
They’re trying to grow for some of the same patients, after all.
Several recipients of Oregon’s 13 hemp licenses, including one of two from Bend, say their primary goal is to grow the plant - a non-psychoactive relative of marijuana - for CBD, an oil extracted from hemp plants that has qualities to help with symptoms suffered by patients with cancer, seizures and other ailments. Hemp is also used in food products and textiles.
Some are miffed lawmakers waited until the start of what would be Oregon’s inaugural hemp season to address concerns raised both by medical marijuana growers who worry cross-pollination will ruin their crops and by attorneys who say farmers are at risk of federal criminal penalties without a quick change in state law.
Many on both sides agree the Legislature is taking the right path in addressing hemp as the state moves closer to a time when cannabis will be legal for recreational and medicinal use and widespread farming.
“We can work together as a team with these marijuana growers,” said Lynn Foutch, from Benton County, who received a license to grow industrial hemp.
Michael Hughes, a Bend attorney whose family has a history of growing hemp in Nebraska, said he’s been breeding and researching hemp for two decades, the last three years in Oregon. He plans to grow and harvest the plant for CBD oil as soon as he’s able to put plants in the ground.
But unless the Legislature reaches a compromise on concerns raised both by hemp farmers eager to grow the plant and medical marijuana growers worried about contamination, there may not be a harvest in Oregon.
“The fact that we’re addressing it now seems very unfair to the people who have industrial hemp licenses,” Hughes said.
Hughes said fields of hemp can create tremendous amounts of pollen, and that the potential for cross-contamination between the two plants is a real concern without rules in place to try and prevent it.
Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, has proposed banning outdoor hemp and marijuana farms from being within 5 miles of each other as a way to prevent cross-contamination, which would wreck the THC levels in marijuana plants and CBD levels in hemp plants.
Buckley says he’s not pitting growers against one another, but is instead trying to find a way to let both industries thrive without encroaching on one another and without interference from the federal government.
“I do understand that it’s been a long wait for farmers who want to grow hemp and I understand why they might be impatient, but we have to ask for a little more patience to make sure we’re doing it right,” Buckley said in an interview this week with The Bulletin.
Courtney Moran, a Portland attorney who is considered an expert on hemp, said Buckley’s proposed 5-mile buffer zone is nearly 2 miles wider than necessary, and would effectively prevent hemp growing in Southern Oregon, home to a disproportionate number of medical marijuana growers, based on population.
“The proposal for 5 miles, that’s really just to squash the industrial hemp industry specifically in Southern Oregon,” Moran said, adding “I do not want any medical marijuana grows affected by this … The 3.5-mile (buffer) is enough.”
Other components of an amendment to Buckley’s bill - which was scheduled for a vote in committee but postponed Wednesday - would undo rules created over a five-year stretch by the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
After finishing the rules in January, the department gave hemp licenses to 13 prospective farmers. But the new rules didn’t comply with new federal guidelines that require all hemp programs to be run through the university system or through the state Department of Agriculture.
Amendments to Buckley’s bill would create a necessary research component and therefore protect farmers who’ve already planted hemp from interference from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
Another amendment would require only female plants to be grown outside and the seed- and pollen-producing males grown inside, as is sometimes done with root vegetables for similar reasons.
Other amendments to Buckley’s bill would also require any hemp license-holders who have already planted in Southern Oregon to till up their land. The state would repay them for losses.
Once the state sorts out the issue, it may find many more growers looking to plant hemp next year.
“The profit margin in high-CBD hemp is much more than textiles. What I would worry about is, there’s definitely going to be a critical level market supply and demand,” said Adam Jacques, who runs the Growers Guild Gardens and CBD Oregon, which supplies CBD oil for patients.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Can pot and hemp growers get along?; Lawmakers looking for compromise among industries as farmers eager to grow
Author: Taylor W. Anderson
Contact: Contact Us
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Can pot and hemp growers get along?; Lawmakers looking for compromise among industries as farmers eager to grow
