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US Hemp Roundtable shares goals for 2023 Farm Bill: Q&A with Jonathan Miller
The U.S. Farm Bill that legalized commercial hemp production in 2018 is set to expire at the end of September.
As members of Congress craft replacement legislation, they will assess the needs of domestic agriculture – including hemp farmers and producers.
The U.S. Hemp Roundtable and 30 other cannabis organizations submitted a list of nine priorities for the House and Senate committees involved in creating the Farm Bill to consider as they solidify new legislation.
Those priorities include:
- Bolstering the U.S. Department of Agriculture hemp program through funding and dedicated staff.
- Requiring the Food and Drug Administration to regulate hemp extracts such as CBD.
- Designating hemp as a specialty crop.
- Repealing a ban that keeps felons from participating in hemp production.
- Promoting hemp research at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), tribal colleges and Hispanic-serving institutions.
- Removing Drug Enforcement Administration registration for hemp-testing labs.
- Easing burdensome regulations.
- Permitting hemp grain for animal feed.
- Addressing THC levels for hemp.
Jonathan Miller, general counsel for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, spoke with MJBizMagazine about these priorities as well as potential challenges for low-THC cannabis farmers and processors as lawmakers prepare to hammer out a new Farm Bill.
What have you heard about changes to hemp in the 2023 U.S. Farm Bill?
The biggest issue that we’re confronting as an industry is the lack of regulation by the FDA when it comes to CBD and other cannabinoids.
I know there’s going to be an effort to amend the Farm Bill with language that would require that the FDA regulate CBD.
There’s a jurisdictional issue at the front, so the (U.S. House of Representatives) version of the Farm Bill that comes out will not have anything about the FDA.
The House Agriculture Committee does not have jurisdiction over the FDA.
But when it gets to the Senate, or when it gets to the floor, or when it gets into conference committee, we are expecting to see some language there.
And that’s the biggest thing that the industry is hoping for.
As far as CBD goes, it doesn’t have to be the Farm Bill.
The folks in the House Energy and Commerce Committee would like to see a separate bill. They’d like to maintain jurisdiction over it.
But I do think there is consensus that we’d like to see something done this year.
What about Farm Bill changes regarding hemp-based intoxicating cannabinoids?
There’s a lot of discussion about that. I think there’s going to be efforts to try to ban them. We’re going to be fighting that.
We’re worried that we’re going to see a new prohibition, which doesn’t work.
I also think there will be efforts to try to ensure that they’re legal, as long as they are strictly regulated and kept out of the hands of children.
So, I think that’s going to be a big battle line. I don’t know if it’s going to be resolved during the Farm Bill, but it’s certainly going to be brought up.
My biggest worry is that we don’t see enough hemp in the Farm Bill. We really need to deal with the CBD issue and our agenda.
We’re not going to get everything we want, but I’d love to be able to get to some clear victories for hemp.
We’re hoping to reduce regulations on (hemp farmers and processors).
That’s the biggest challenge, as well as the protections in terms of processing – so the processors don’t have to worry about being accused of engaging in controlled substances.
How likely is a new Farm Bill to pass this year?
A lot of discussion is about two battles going on, particularly when it comes to the (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) that used to be called food stamps.
It’s less a battle between Democrats and Republicans and more a battle within the Republican Party.
Folks in the Freedom Caucus and the right wing of the party are still upset about the debt-ceiling deal and might use this as a way to try to get more.
So, it’s a real challenge for House Republican leadership to be able to deliver something that will meet the needs of both the far-right wing as well as Democrats.
Who are the Congressional change-makers for hemp?
As always, (Senate Minority Leader) Mitch McConnell is one of – if not the leading – player when it comes to hemp, so we will be watching closely with what he does.
Jamie Comer, who is the House Oversight Committee chair, has announced that he’s going to have hearings on hemp and CBD.
The other real players are going be the leaders of those committees: the chair of House Energy and Commerce Committee, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, will have a lot of say. And Glenn “GT” Thompson, the chair of House Agriculture Committee, will.
And then on the Senate side, you’ve got Debbie Stabenow, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture (Nutrition and Forestry), and Bernie Sanders, who chairs the Senate Health, (Education, Labor and Pensions) Committee, so they will have a lot of inputs.
Of course, (U.S. Senate Majority Leader) Chuck Schumer undoubtedly will play a major role as well.
What should marijuana execs know about the Farm Bill?
A lot of marijuana industry folks are closely watching the Farm Bill to see what Congress does with CBD and nonintoxicating cannabinoids because it could prove a model for what (Congress) will do when marijuana is finally legalized.
A lot of marijuana folks are going to want to watch this model and see how it develops.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/us-hemp-roundtable-shares-goals-for-2023-farm-bill/
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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