Global hemp production is increasing in 2019

Some of these countries are positioned to capitalize on the popularity of CBD in their domestic markets.  Others are growing crops on speculation, even as new processing ventures pop up to convert biomass into CBD oil, distillate, and isolate.  Africa has waded into the hemp industry, and Thailand, with its strict marijuana laws and enforcement, has also sought to capitalize on the new market for cannabinoids.

An unintended effect of hemp legalization and normalization in the US is that foreign governments are relaxing their positions on cannabis.    This is unfolding in the US as well, as smokable hemp flower has become a central debate in state legislatures.  Law enforcement cannot distinguish marijuana from the premium CBD hemp flower.  States have reacted in different ways.  SC forced the removal of all raw hemp flower from dispensary shelves.  Other states have put the brakes on prosecuting simple marijuana charges, as judicial systems wrestle with the slippery new reality that congress has handed them.  This is true in Texas and Florida, where DA’s are dismissing charges, and law enforcement is counseled to make arrests only when higher amounts of cannabis, or other drugs are found.  Because current field tests cannot distinguish marijuana from hemp, prosecutors cannot use results from these tests that have been trusted for many years.  Any defense could argue that the material was hemp, which reliably returns positive as marijuana with field tests.

This widespread conversation about de facto legalization in state legislatures is bound to elicit a common response from lawmakers of all flavors: So What?  Lawmakers see the business opportunities, the taxation potential, and increased acceptance in their constituents.  Conservative farmers are now growing verdant crops of high cannabinoid hemp, that looks and smells just like premium marijuana.  Their workers often work in the marijuana industry too, and ancillary industries serve both sectors.  This puts lots of new people in business together, desensitizes farmers to cannabis issues, and invariably forces some shift in their views.  Hemp legalization will accelerate the legalization of marijuana in states that were still some years off from a recreational pot industry.

The US is a global trendsetter, but it isn’t just fashion that empowers other countries to loosen their cannabis policies.  The US controls much of the worlds banking through anti-money laundering policies that other countries strictly adhere to.  Columbia, for instance, has a long, shared history with the US when it comes to drugs.  Columbia has relaxed its cannabis policies as that countries population shows a keenness for CBD products just like its giant neighbor to the north.  Hemp production for CBD is off to a strong start in Columbia, where the oldest democracy in South America has an economy to support a domestic industry.  But Columbia is looking to export markets also.  It’s unclear now whether US demand will extend beyond our fourfold increase in domestic production, or whether foreign grown material will be economically competitive.  Right now, the industry is in rapid flux, as brands emerge and the supply chain develops.

The acquisition of American companies by Canadian firms has been commonplace in the hemp landscape.  Canadians have also aggressively developed processing capacity in the US.  China is also on the move, as nutraceutical company Layn Corporation is set to invest $60 million in extraction capacity In the Midwest.  More on this here:

https://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2019/06/05/Layn-Corp-to-invest-60m-in-building-US-CBD-operation#