The market for CBD, a supplemental health product from the cannabis plant that does not provide the THC psychoactive high from marijuana, is considered easy pickings for about 500+ Michigan farmers that are now growing hemp.
Officials have launched the Michigan’s first regulated agricultural hemp farming pilot research program. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) oversees the growing, processing and selling of hemp, including the expanding CBD, or cannabidiol market.
The regulatory environment for hemp production and processing for CBD raises several policy and legal questions, including how the federal government will oversee a product that until last year was considered a Schedule 1 drug.
State pilot program
The passage of the federal Farm Bill and multiple state laws in December jump-started hemp farming in Michigan. The Farm Bill delisted hemp as a Schedule 1 drug and also allowed states to establish their own regulatory programs. Michigan developed its pilot under guidance from the 2014 Farm Bill, and experts expect little to change specific to hemp growing when the federal government finalizes its regulations this fall.
In April, MDARD held four events in East Lansing that granted temporary licenses onsite. Between the four events, the state issued 600 licenses for hemp growers and processors — a vastly different process compared to how it awarded licenses for medical marijuana businesses.
As of July 31, the state has issued licenses for 530 growers spanning 32,222 total acres, along with 380 processor licenses, according to MDARD. Information on where hemp is grown and who processes it is exempt from public records laws.
Most operators growing hemp are doing so for CBD products, said Gina Alessandri, MDARD’s Industrial Hemp Program director.
“I think there’s a lot of potential for (hemp) here. We have a great climate for it,” she said.
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