I know I have been talking about the legislative backlash that I have been expecting since around 2020 when all these novel products started coming out across the country from hemp manufacturers trying to make money back from all their investments in CBD.
I posted a big one for Missouri and I’ve already been talking about what is happening in California - since there A LOT of facilities in both of those states.
But other states are getting on this bandwagon as well. So if you are running a hemp operation - you should be actively lobbying to stop these measures OR planning to more your operations to states that do not have these rules.
Louisiana, Illinois, Mississippi, and Florida (oof…they are so hardcore in Florida! The bill passed last year and enforcement has already started strong!) have all introduced legislation or passed it to stem the tide of the intoxicating hemp products from their states. In many cases - they are allowing products but with potency levels so low that I don’t know what customer would want to consume them. In other cases - they are moving to disallow all hemp products unless they are part of the licensed medical market.
So you know - decide where your line in the sand is and get engaged with the legislative process.
Thanks for posting this. I object to hemp companies “trying to recoup costs.” They gave the customer what they wanted. It’s weird to see how the hemp industry is viewed. Lol
Definitely weird - and I’m 100% sharing with everyone the conversation is stark. If you are not in the room then you are being sold down the river. Licensed operators and prohibitionists banding together so that you cannot compete with them or make your product accessible.
As a hemp operator - who sunk a lot of other people’s money into growing CBD hemp and processing it into isolate with contracts with major cosmetics and food companies. I definitely had the owners of the company saying to me - how can we get the money back since the price has fallen out of the market?
I had farmers saying now what do we do with all this hemp?
I had food and cosmetics companies saying they didn’t care that they ordered the stuff - the FDA had said no (pretty loudly actually) and they were not willing to risk using a food/cosmetic adulterant in their products.
All the while - the hemp industry is thriving? is that even the right word? And people all over are fighting to shut it down, limit its accessibility, and generally bring legislation to make it non-competitive.
Its the same damn plant - is what I tell people. But the regulators, legislators, and licensed operators do not agree! Only the prohibitionists seem to agree that the plant is the plant - but not for any good reasons. Haha.
I hope people take action on this - too many times people are left out because they did not choose to speak for themselves and others.
I’m headed to DC in 3 weeks to speak to the senate and house about this. Rally the troops to treat the plant equally and get people to stop trying to limit access to a plant that isn’t hurting anybody - especially when there are so many things out there that really do hurt people. <3
I really appreciate you effort. Yeah, a bunch of farmers who never wanted anything to do with delta 8 were slapped across the face with the markets demands. It was a saving grace for many, but not enough unfortunately. For every business I see thriving now I know two that went out of business, including one of my own past ventures. Realistically though, CBD was always a gateway for people who didn’t have access to THC. It was truly better than no cannabinoids at all. Even if we didn’t know how at the time, we all knew people still wanted THC. The fact that this industry stands still is due to the market saying, “hey we desperately want to buy this! We went to spend billions on THIS product!” The suppliers adapted and became successful after that point…I mean the fact that the rule makers can’t inherently see the will of the market as the will of the people is sad… But as you said there is the collusion. You and I have talked about rescheduling and pharma lot in our posts… This is why I feel the way I do. I feel there has been collusion against the hemp industry on many fronts and access to medicine is falling to the way side. I guess you could just call me skeptical of any more rulemaking because of how it’s being conducted.
Banning all the sketchy workaround THC absolutely makes sense unfortunately. I don’t see why that wouldn’t or shouldn’t happen. Shit, even Tommy Chong is selling sketchy 300mg THC gummy packs for $70 online now.
Hopefully they won’t throw the baby out with the bath water and ban regular CBD products. In california there’s talks of hemp merging with metric and nerfing the products to five servings per product, 1mg TOTAL thc per product, etc. AB-2223
Banning hemp products won’t save your businesses. I have interacted with many of you and seen the internals of thousands of operations. Most of the cannabis industry run inefficient, disorganized operations and loot these already encumbered businesses for all they are worth. Go look at the state of yalls equipment and tell me you deserve reduced competition in the market. Go ask your employees if they want to see all your competitors disappear (they’d now be stuck with you). There are a few of you that are on point and deserve to succeed, thanks to your abilities to run businesses. The rest of you deserve the current state of affairs.
Lmao I couldn’t have said it better. You all charged customers $70 an eight for a decade after you fought for “safe access” and now are really mad that the hemp industry has made THCA under two dollars a gram. If you can’t “see why it shouldn’t be banned” you are just blinded by your own greed.
No one can sit here and explain how the hemp industrial isn’t good for the customer.
I know I’m a rare one, but I gave up a lot to join this industry and spread MEDICINE. Y’all won’t ever be successful thinking over the next decade about money first in this space. You all had the golden ticket after prohibition but you need only look to the alcohol markets development to see where we are going. So either adapt or be ready to go out of business. Your long term strategy and customers need to come first. So far the government has been holding your hand through this, welcome to the free market.
Your whole business model was relying on an exclusive license from the government, nothing to do with relying on customers or a long term plan.
Tldr
Decades long battle for plant medicine freedom against the government
Global cannabis market is valued at $28B, over $7B of which is accounted for by hemp. Hemp has been around a lot shorter of a time. But whatever you say.
If you aren’t setting record sales in the hemp space month over month you are doing it wrong.
It would be seriously helpful to have some additional farmers and hemp space operators who can talk about the good work they are doing. Even testimonials would be helpful - for any who do not have the means to come to cannabis lobby week in DC.
Often its only licensed operators. We have a couple of hemp operators who join - but mostly in the hemp space its fiber and building materials at this point that join us, asking for limitations on restrictions for growing fiber plants.
That would be super helpful. Also helpful would be specific asks - things you would like to see, things that are there that you would like to see changed. I have my own perspective as a farmer and licensed operator.
Talking about customer needs and wants is super helpful too. Especially if you are addressing a specific demographic that other systems are leaving behind (I’m looking at you Texas operators!).
This right here is what pisses me off. Hemp THC gummies that are MORE EXPENSIVE than licensed operator gummies in Michigan. The fuck is wrong with people?
You should be able to buy THC or CBD products like you buy fucking tomatoes.
You want a bag of gummies at the grocery - they also happen to have THC in them. You should pay a very small additional fee.
But then my focus on ACCESS often gets me in trouble. Cause I’m not interested in money grubbing. I’m interested in making a sustainable living for me and my techs. While making sure I make the best medicine available on the market that is accessible to as many people as possible.
All of these celebrity companies are a joke and fall off shortly after inception. He’s like 90 and has cancer, let him do his thing and fail… Snoop too. It makes me angry too but I view it as the competition making my product stand out. Cheaper and better quality. We really need to start preaching to smoke local just like people drink local with micro brews. There’s only a few Coors, miller, bud light… But there’s plenty of micro brewery’s who make above average living and pay their employees fair. We can learn a lot as to how prohibition ended and the market developed. I have no problem with someone being ambitious and wanting to be Coors or Bud light, dream your dream! Just don’t be disappointed in shooting for the moon but landing in the stars. Realistically the best way for this industry to have good outcomes for our communities is to keep it local. Treat them like local artisanal farms - you pay a little more for a great tomato from a road side stand, but you can get a tomato at the regular store too! Just like Cassin said. The alcohol industry really proves this. There will be an accessibility market and also a connoisseur market. You can buy Bud light at a Walgreens… If you want something nicer you can go to a local brewery. There is space for both, but I think the difference here is especially that cannabis customers have a rich history of paying more for that fire… alcoholics are more likely to accept Boof than stoners.
Correct. Nothing to do about the giant growth hemp is currently experiencing, contradicting what you said.
Also, this is the model that essentially all of the biggest companies in the world use… Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon… Not that it’s a direct comparison or should be.
If you read my posts carefully that is what I’m saying. Mid size local players are more sustainable than large nationwide brands for cannabis, although there will be both we should aim for the former. All I’m saying in direct response to your previous post was that the hemp industry is growing, not dying. The most successful companies is an economy such as ours must maintain their position when they get to the top… Record profits… What else is there at that point? Sustainability has been long achieved for those actors. We need to take it upon ourselves to take aim at a different path and culture in our industry, when we achieve sustainability we must aim for sustainability for others via collaboration and sharing of this medicine.
on the stick