Sign up for our daily Newsletter and stay up to date with all the latest news!

Subscribe I am already a subscriber

You are using software which is blocking our advertisements (adblocker).

As we provide the news for free, we are relying on revenues from our banners. So please disable your adblocker and reload the page to continue using this site.
Thanks!

Click here for a guide on disabling your adblocker.

Sign up for our daily Newsletter and stay up to date with all the latest news!

Subscribe I am already a subscriber

US: Why intoxicating hemp is a growing threat to regulated cannabis businesses

For CFOs dealing with a competitor who has less regulatory scrutiny because of a technicality or slight difference in product, the current challenge for cannabis companies competing against hemp-derived cannabis products will sound like familiar territory.

Hemp (cannabis containing less than 0.3% delta-9 THC) is federally legal under the 2018 Farm Bill. Officially called the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, the Farm Bill was a major piece of U.S. legislation that continues to govern agriculture and food policy. It removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act. It also allowed for hemp cultivation, production and interstate transport, giving regulatory oversight to the USDA while permitting states and tribes to develop their own hemp programs.

Unlike hemp-derived cannabis, regular cannabis, derived from cannabis sativa or cannabis indica, colloquially known as marijuana, is a Schedule I narcotic and federally illegal despite many states legalizing it and creating large state-run cannabis programs.

Though rollout success has varied, these state-run programs have led to businesses operating under tight regulatory pressure. Because of cannabis' federal scheduling, they cannot benefit from multi-state operations at scale and qualify for far fewer tax deductions.

Read more at CFO