Katelyn Baker
Well-Known Member
Industrial hemp is not marijuana, not even close.
That's the first lesson hemp growers on the Western Slope want everyone to learn.
Though the two plants look identical, hemp doesn't have anywhere near the psychotropic compounds as marijuana, but it does have a lot of other uses.
And they can be profitable: Clothing, food, coffee, perfume, candles, and even potential medications, just to name a few of its marketable uses.
Like recreational marijuana, industrial hemp was made legal to grow and sell in Colorado under Amendment 64 in 2012.
Since then, the industrial hemp industry has grown exponentially in the state, becoming a multimillion dollar business with no end in sight for its potential in economic development, said Margaret Richardson, one of the owners of the Salt Creek Hemp Co. near Collbran.
"We do not want to do any kind of processing, that's too much," she said. "We want to do that first step on the supply chain by farming it, and, then we want to bring in people to this area to grow the economy that's going to process it into products that can be used in other products."
A Hemp Industries Association report release in May showed that nationwide, retail sales for hemp products in 2015 reached $575 million, which was a more than 10 percent increase from the prior year.
At the same time, the number of people in Colorado who are either growing the hemp plant or processing it into retail products have gone from zero in 2012 to nearly 200.
In the region alone, there now are more than 40 growers, with the bulk located in Delta County, according to the Colorado Department of Agriculture, which registers and monitors the industry.
By law, the delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) level of industrial hemp cannot exceed three-tenths of 1 percent on a dry weight basis. In comparison, the THC level of medical and recreational pot can be anywhere from 18 percent to 30 percent, or even higher, according to research done for the department.
The department's 2015 crop report on hemp revealed that there are about 3,657 acres of hemp growing in Colorado, with about 2,300 of those acres seeing harvest. Additionally, another 571,000 square feet of it is being grown inside greenhouses around the state.
While state law allows hemp to be grown outdoors, the same is not true for legal marijuana, which Richardson said is another indication to anyone who happens upon a field of it to tell the difference.
"If it's out in the open, it's hemp," she said. "Trust me, you won't want to smoke it, not when you can get the real thing now at a marijuana shop."
HEMP PAST AND PRESENT
The history of hemp dates back centuries, beginning in the United States before it became a nation. The country's first and third presidents, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, were among many who grew hemp. It wasn't until the 1930s and 1940s that hemp began to be tied too closely to marijuana, eventually leading it into being included with laws banning its use as a controlled substance.
But that's all changing as people's attitudes about cannabis have changed in general. After numerous states began to legalize medical marijuana starting in the late 1990s, and recreational marijuana only in recent years, hemp has seen a resurgence, according to the hemp association.
It has also sprouted advocacy groups aimed at changing state and federal laws, starting with hemp's inclusion in the 2014 Farm Bill that allowed research to be done on the plant, according to VoteHemp, a nonprofit advocacy group pushing those laws.
Since then, other proposed laws to open up the hemp market have come before Congress, including the Industrial Hemp Farming Act, which would remove hemp from the nation's controlled substance laws. That act, identical versions of which are before the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, has seen growing bipartisan support among elected officials, including Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner, and U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, among other Colorado representatives.
Bennet said he's backing that law and continued hemp research because it makes sense.
"We know that all of the agriculture benefits from continued research (and) hemp should be no different," the Democrat said. "We began working to authorize hemp research in the 2014 Farm Bill because of its potential as a versatile crop that can be sold for use in a variety of products."
Last fall, Bennet was one of a handful of senators and representatives, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to send a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asking him to help ensure that research projects in those states that have allowed it can qualify for federal grants to continue their work.
One of the things those researchers are looking at are cannabidiol compounds in marijuana and hemp plants. Known as CBDs, those compounds don't have the psychoactive reaction as THC, and are being used and looked at for their medical potential for such ailments as inflammation, pain, anxiety, psychosis and even epileptic seizures, among other things, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
While the FDA has approved the use of synthetic cannabinoids for such things as helping chemotherapy patients control nausea, it has not approved the use of CBDs from hemp or marijuana for any medical condition.
CASH CROP
Nationally, there are nearly 30 states that now allow hemp to be grown and harvested, though only a handful, such as Colorado, are as yet doing so on a serious basis.
Getting started in the business isn't easy either, Richardson and others said.
Growing it is one thing, but processing it into a retail product can be very expensive depending on its intended use, said Kate Ramsey, owner of Natural Order Supply, a Grand Junction company located in the Cottonwood Mall on U.S. Highway 6&50 that specializes in helping all types of commercial cultivators, including hemp growers.
Ramsey said many of the hemp farms in the region are small - 1 to 5 acres - but are growing larger by the year (Richardson started with one acre last year, but now has 15 acres of the plant).
"When you're looking at these small operations, I think there's a lot of experiential people doing stuff out there just to kind of understand it and try it out," she said. "So right now, it's in its early stages of development, and it's very challenging for these cultivators of hemp to really execute a full business just because the harvesting equipment is so expensive, and getting a facility to break it down to make it into fiber is also expensive."
Acting as pioneers for an emerging industry, Richardson and other local growers have managed to discover markets to sell their crops, some through the Great Plains Hemp Co-op. For now, though, there are only a few places around the state and nation that can process the plant into products, Ramsey said.
She said that's taking time because equipment to process hemp or to extract oils from it is expensive, and few are willing to invest in the industry until they know better whether it will be a sustainable one.
"It's not anywhere near the full capacity," Ramsey said. "It will be once they get the processing facilities."
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: The Height Of Hemp
Author: Charles Ashby
Contact: The Daily Sentinel
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: The Daily Sentinel
That's the first lesson hemp growers on the Western Slope want everyone to learn.
Though the two plants look identical, hemp doesn't have anywhere near the psychotropic compounds as marijuana, but it does have a lot of other uses.
And they can be profitable: Clothing, food, coffee, perfume, candles, and even potential medications, just to name a few of its marketable uses.
Like recreational marijuana, industrial hemp was made legal to grow and sell in Colorado under Amendment 64 in 2012.
Since then, the industrial hemp industry has grown exponentially in the state, becoming a multimillion dollar business with no end in sight for its potential in economic development, said Margaret Richardson, one of the owners of the Salt Creek Hemp Co. near Collbran.
"We do not want to do any kind of processing, that's too much," she said. "We want to do that first step on the supply chain by farming it, and, then we want to bring in people to this area to grow the economy that's going to process it into products that can be used in other products."
A Hemp Industries Association report release in May showed that nationwide, retail sales for hemp products in 2015 reached $575 million, which was a more than 10 percent increase from the prior year.
At the same time, the number of people in Colorado who are either growing the hemp plant or processing it into retail products have gone from zero in 2012 to nearly 200.
In the region alone, there now are more than 40 growers, with the bulk located in Delta County, according to the Colorado Department of Agriculture, which registers and monitors the industry.
By law, the delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) level of industrial hemp cannot exceed three-tenths of 1 percent on a dry weight basis. In comparison, the THC level of medical and recreational pot can be anywhere from 18 percent to 30 percent, or even higher, according to research done for the department.
The department's 2015 crop report on hemp revealed that there are about 3,657 acres of hemp growing in Colorado, with about 2,300 of those acres seeing harvest. Additionally, another 571,000 square feet of it is being grown inside greenhouses around the state.
While state law allows hemp to be grown outdoors, the same is not true for legal marijuana, which Richardson said is another indication to anyone who happens upon a field of it to tell the difference.
"If it's out in the open, it's hemp," she said. "Trust me, you won't want to smoke it, not when you can get the real thing now at a marijuana shop."
HEMP PAST AND PRESENT
The history of hemp dates back centuries, beginning in the United States before it became a nation. The country's first and third presidents, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, were among many who grew hemp. It wasn't until the 1930s and 1940s that hemp began to be tied too closely to marijuana, eventually leading it into being included with laws banning its use as a controlled substance.
But that's all changing as people's attitudes about cannabis have changed in general. After numerous states began to legalize medical marijuana starting in the late 1990s, and recreational marijuana only in recent years, hemp has seen a resurgence, according to the hemp association.
It has also sprouted advocacy groups aimed at changing state and federal laws, starting with hemp's inclusion in the 2014 Farm Bill that allowed research to be done on the plant, according to VoteHemp, a nonprofit advocacy group pushing those laws.
Since then, other proposed laws to open up the hemp market have come before Congress, including the Industrial Hemp Farming Act, which would remove hemp from the nation's controlled substance laws. That act, identical versions of which are before the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, has seen growing bipartisan support among elected officials, including Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner, and U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, among other Colorado representatives.
Bennet said he's backing that law and continued hemp research because it makes sense.
"We know that all of the agriculture benefits from continued research (and) hemp should be no different," the Democrat said. "We began working to authorize hemp research in the 2014 Farm Bill because of its potential as a versatile crop that can be sold for use in a variety of products."
Last fall, Bennet was one of a handful of senators and representatives, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to send a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asking him to help ensure that research projects in those states that have allowed it can qualify for federal grants to continue their work.
One of the things those researchers are looking at are cannabidiol compounds in marijuana and hemp plants. Known as CBDs, those compounds don't have the psychoactive reaction as THC, and are being used and looked at for their medical potential for such ailments as inflammation, pain, anxiety, psychosis and even epileptic seizures, among other things, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
While the FDA has approved the use of synthetic cannabinoids for such things as helping chemotherapy patients control nausea, it has not approved the use of CBDs from hemp or marijuana for any medical condition.
CASH CROP
Nationally, there are nearly 30 states that now allow hemp to be grown and harvested, though only a handful, such as Colorado, are as yet doing so on a serious basis.
Getting started in the business isn't easy either, Richardson and others said.
Growing it is one thing, but processing it into a retail product can be very expensive depending on its intended use, said Kate Ramsey, owner of Natural Order Supply, a Grand Junction company located in the Cottonwood Mall on U.S. Highway 6&50 that specializes in helping all types of commercial cultivators, including hemp growers.
Ramsey said many of the hemp farms in the region are small - 1 to 5 acres - but are growing larger by the year (Richardson started with one acre last year, but now has 15 acres of the plant).
"When you're looking at these small operations, I think there's a lot of experiential people doing stuff out there just to kind of understand it and try it out," she said. "So right now, it's in its early stages of development, and it's very challenging for these cultivators of hemp to really execute a full business just because the harvesting equipment is so expensive, and getting a facility to break it down to make it into fiber is also expensive."
Acting as pioneers for an emerging industry, Richardson and other local growers have managed to discover markets to sell their crops, some through the Great Plains Hemp Co-op. For now, though, there are only a few places around the state and nation that can process the plant into products, Ramsey said.
She said that's taking time because equipment to process hemp or to extract oils from it is expensive, and few are willing to invest in the industry until they know better whether it will be a sustainable one.
"It's not anywhere near the full capacity," Ramsey said. "It will be once they get the processing facilities."
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: The Height Of Hemp
Author: Charles Ashby
Contact: The Daily Sentinel
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: The Daily Sentinel
