The CBD Association is working hard for you both in the U.S. and internationally. Here are some recent developments:
OVERPRODUCTION LEADS TO BANKRUPTCY FOR SOME IN THE HEMP INDUSTRY
As a developing industry, hemp has had more than its fair share of obstacles since the 2018 Farm Bill. COVID and a world-wide recession are just the latest obstacles hemp has faced.
Bill Hilliard, CEO of Kentucky-based Atalo Holdings, a hemp and CBD company that filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in April, said the current, challenging state of the hemp market stems from a number of factors that are beyond the control of most hemp companies, including regulatory uncertainty due to a delay of guidelines from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the continued struggle to secure financial services from lenders and credit card-processing companies.
“It’s a convergence of overproduction and a lack of good guidance from the FDA and USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) in what our market opportunities are,” Hilliard said to Hemp Industry Daily.
Atalo is one of four Kenutcky based hemp producers to file Chapter 7 in the last year – the others include, SunStand, GenCanna Global, Elemental Processing and UCann.
NIST LAUNCHES THE CANNABIS QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has launched a program to help laboratories accurately measure key chemical compounds in marijuana, hemp and other cannabis products including oils, edibles, tinctures and balms. The program aims to increase accuracy in product labeling and help forensic laboratories distinguish between hemp and marijuana.
The goal of the program, said NIST research chemist Brent Wilson, is to help labs produce consistent measurement results. “When you walk into a store or dispensary and see a label that says 10% CBD, you want to know that you can trust that number.”
Those numbers are also important as a matter of criminal law. The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, also called the 2018 Farm Bill, legalized any cannabis material with a THC concentration below 0.3%. Below that number, it’s hemp. At or above that number, it’s marijuana, and illegal in many states and by federal law. A farmer’s crop can be destroyed based on that number, and interstate shipments can be seized.
NIST is also working on a hemp reference material — that is, a material that comes with known, accurate measurement values. Labs will be able to use that material to validate their measurement methods. One reason these measurements vary so much from lab to lab is that, currently, there are no reference materials for cannabis.
NIST produces thousands of standard reference materials and has a long history of conducting quality assurance programs for improving measurements. Past programs have helped labs accurately measure compounds in dietary supplements, vitamins in human serum and environmental contaminants in groundwater.
“Our goal is to support U.S. industries by helping labs achieve high-quality measurements,” Phillips said.
Laboratories that are interested in participating in CannaQAP can find more information and can register online. Registration in the first exercise involving hemp oil will be open through Aug. 31, 2020.
CANOPY GROWTH LAUNCHES E-COMMERCE PLATFORM FOR U.S. PORTFOLIO
Canada-based cannabis giant Canopy Growth Corporation has recently launched a new e-commerce platform in the U.S. featuring it’s growing portfolio of U.S.-based CBD brands.
ShopCanopy.com is a one-stop shop for over 25 product SKUs from brands such as First & Free, This Works, and BioSteel. The site will feature upcoming brands from Canopy Growth, including the anticipated launch of Martha Stewart CBD.
“We’re pleased to offer our customers a convenient, one-stop destination for exploring and purchasing Canopy Growth’s products in the U.S.,” said Sol Clahane, Vice President and General Manager – US Region, Canopy Growth. “As our exciting portfolio of hemp-based CBD products continues to grow and diversify, it’s our ambition to offer competitively-priced, high quality products for each consumer need state and price point.”
The site allows consumers to search by brand or product category, such as softgels, oils, topicals or sport. ShopCanopy also aspires to educate the consumer – the site features an educational component with FAQs, blog posts and educational material. The site claims to provide consumers with an “accessible, transparent, and trustworthy resource for science-backed information on CBD safety, dosing, benefits, product quality and more.”
CURALEAF ACQUIRES GRASSROOTS CREATING THE WORLD’S LARGEST CANNABIS COMPANY
On July 23, 2020, Curaleaf completed its acquisition of Grassroots. With completion of the acquisition of Grassroots, Curaleaf is the world’s largest cannabis company by revenue and the most diversified vertically integrated cannabis company in the United States, the world’s largest cannabis market.
The transaction expands Curaleaf’s presence from 18 to 23 states, with the combined company having affiliated operations spanning over 135 dispensary licenses, 88 operational dispensary locations, over 30 processing facilities and 22 cultivation sites with 1.6 million square feet of current cultivation capacity. Curaleaf’s expanded geographic dispensary presence now offers access to medical or adult use Cannabis to more than 192 million people, or roughly two-thirds of the United States population.
