Business
Cows Given Hemp Feed To Produce Milk With THC
A new study has determined that dairy cows fed industrial hemp produced milk with detectable levels of THC.
A new study from researchers in Germany has determined that dairy cows that were fed industrial hemp produced milk with detectable levels of delta-9 THC, the cannabis compound most closely associated with the high produced by marijuana. The cows also exhibited behavioral changes, indicating that the animals might have been feeling the effects of the cannabinoids contained in the hemp feed.
“This is important, as we had no data to know to what extent cannabinoids entered the milk of dairy cows,” Michael Kleinhenz, an assistant professor in beef production medicine at Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine who was not involved in the research, told NewScientist.
To conduct the study, researchers at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment fed 10 lactating dairy cows differing amounts of hemp feed containing a range of cannabinoid concentrations. The cows were studied over a period of weeks, with researchers collecting data on the animals’ behavior and conducting lab analysis on blood, milk, and fecal samples.
The researchers determined that the type of hemp feed given to the dairy cows played a role in the effect the feed had on the animals. Cows that were fed fermented feed made from whole hemp plants showed few differences compared to dairy cows given a traditional diet of corn feed.
However, the cows that were given feed made from cannabinoid-rich hemp leaves, flowers, and seeds exhibited noticeable behavioral changes. Additionally, the milk from the cows showed detectable levels of several cannabinoids including delta-9 THC. According to the researchers’ calculations, these cows consumed up to 86 times the amount of THC that is required to get humans high.
The effects observed by the researchers included slower heart rate and breathing, “pronounced tongue play, increased yawning, salivation, nasal secretion formation,” and reddening of a portion of the eyes, the report states. Some animals “displayed careful, occasionally unsteady gait, unusually long standing and abnormal posture.”
Robert Pieper, head of the department of food chain safety for the German institute and co-author of the new study, said that the cows that were given the hemp feed also ate less and produced less milk.
“That is a strong effect on animal health,” Pieper said, according to a report from The Washington Post. “Not a positive effect.”
Kleinhenz has conducted research on steers that were fed hemp at Kansas State University and noted that the animals tended to become calmer.
“We don’t know if they have that buzz or whatnot,” Kleinhenz said. But he added that the cattle have lower levels of stress hormones. He believes that the cannabinoids in the feed reduce stress, but “we still have to figure out that mechanism in animals.”
Hemp was legalized in the United States with the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. But so far, the Food and Drug Administration has failed to allow cannabinoids including CBD into the U.S. food supply. Similarly, federal regulators have not yet approved animal feed made from hemp.
More Research Needed
Jeffrey Steiner, director of Oregon State University’s Global Hemp Innovation Center, has experimented with hemp as a feed supplement for dairy cows, sheep, and poultry. But he noted that the research only began in 2019 and several more years of study are needed before hemp animal feeds are approved by regulators.
“You’re not going to see CBD-enhanced milk on the shelf for a long time,” said Steiner, who did not have a role in the German study.
Serkan Ates, an agronomist at Oregon State University, Corvallis, has studied hemp consumption in cows, lambs, and chickens. He says that because of the potential to pass on cannabinoids in milk, “it may not be possible to feed this to high-yielding dairy cows.”
“But there is plenty of low-hanging fruit to explore, like feeding hemp to non–food-producing animals like heifers or young lambs,” Ates said.
Erica Stark, executive director of the National Hemp Association, said that high-quality animal feed can be made from hemp if regulators eventually give the nod.
“It’s going to be such a really large market,” Stark said. “There’s actually animal feed shortages in this country right now, ramifications of what’s happening in Ukraine, droughts and other crop failures.”
The study, “Transfer of cannabinoids into the milk of dairy cows fed with industrial hemp could lead to Δ9-THC exposure that exceeds acute reference dose,” was published online on November 14 by the peer-reviewed journal Nature Food.
Source: https://hightimes.com/study/cows-given-hemp-feed-to-produce-milk-with-thc/
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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