Browsing: Hemp

Two powerful federal agencies have given some optimism to Colorado hemp farmers and CBD companies.

Late last month, the United States Department of Agriculture announced a temporary suspension of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s involvement with industrial hemp testing, a factor of federal hemp regulations that worried Colorado farmers for a variety of reasons. Days later, the Food and Drug Administration announced a more collaborative approach toward future CBD regulations with stakeholders of the hemp-derived CBD industry.

Organizers of the NoCo Hemp Expo — definitely Colorado’s, and possibly the country’s, largest annual hemp-industry conference — have just announced that it will be postponed because of worries over COVID-19.

The expo, originally slated for March 26 through 28 at Denver’s National Western Complex and Renaissance Denver Stapleton Hotel, will now be held August 6 through 8 at the same locations, according to NoCo Hemp expo producer Morris Beegle.

Hiring a retired athlete to push hemp products has gone from a trend to simply the way things are done in the emerging CBD industry. Now a Colorado CBD company has lured an NBA legend to do more than that.

Earlier this month, Hall of Fame basketball player Isiah Thomas (not to be confused with former Denver Nuggets guard Isaiah Thomas) announced that he had acquired a partnership in VESL Oils, a CBD product manufacturer based in Arvada.

Although most universities remain tepid about marijuana because it’s still prohibited federally, they’re more than happy to dive into hemp right now. The plant produces the same cannabinoids as marijuana — just at levels deemed acceptable by the federal government — and scientists are excited to learn more about CBD. But their research doesn’t end there, with interest in CBN, CBG and CBC also gaining steam.

Colorado CBD company Panacea Life Sciences recently donated $1.5 million to Colorado State University to create a laboratory that will study hemp and medical applications of cannabinoids, the unique molecules produced in the cannabis plant. To learn more about the program and why Panacea donated the money, we caught up with founder Leslie Buttroff.

If any sector has jumped on the CBD train, it’s the wellness community. CBD skin-care products, pills made for pain and soreness, and oils for anxiety are all readily available, and virtually always in the name of wellness.

Although the Food and Drug Administration still doesn’t want CBD considered an official medication, many users buy and use the hemp extract as part of their own health-care routines. Now, personal trainers, chiropractors and even tai chi instructors are starting to incorporate CBD gel capsules and edible oils into their programs, according to Sue Kartheiser. A personal trainer for nearly two decades, Kartheiser leads a program with Boulder-based Mandara in hopes of teaching other wellness coaches about CBD’s impact on health-focused lifestyles.

Kicco Koffie officially launched at the end of 2019, but the new CBD coffee company already wants to add something to its brand: global entrepreneurship.

“Our goal was to create a product that could service a need,” says Kicco co-founder Vincent Sarlos. “And that service would be a healthy coffee that tasted really good and can teach entrepreneurship all over the world.”

About six months ago, a Reddit user posted a photo of a sign pretending to peddle fake CBD-infused firewood. The Internet reacted as you’d expect, shaking a collective fist and rabble-rousing over something that was clearly intended as funny commentary concerning exactly what the Reddit readers thought they were mad about: CBD is being used and abused.

Even if the Internet’s anger was misplaced (big surprise) and we haven’t reached the point of CBD-infused firewood yet — that we know of — there’s no dearth of dumb cash grabs by companies slapping some CBD on it. Earlier this year, we spotted a hot dog stand (at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, of all places) advertising franks infused with 5 milligrams of the stuff. Carl’s Jr. did something similar as a 4/20 stunt in Denver, adding a whopping 4.2 milligrams into a special sauce for a special burger.

Eric Jensen feels trapped. By now, the 43-year-old thought he’d be able to travel from his home in southeastern Colorado to see his son play college ball in the Midwest. But instead, he can’t cross the border into Kansas. He’s stuck hanging around his home town, where most of the residents have turned their backs on him, believing that he’s a hardened drug dealer. Instead, he’s facing criminal charges for something that’s completely legal in Colorado: hemp.

Eric and his brother, 39-year-old Ryan Jensen, grew up in the town of Holly, ten miles from the Kansas border. Early on, they started working on the family farm, the fourth generation to do so, and by 2007, they’d taken over for their father, Robert. They grew wheat and corn and onions and cabbage, which was harvested and shipped to grocery stores across the country. But their biggest crop was cantaloupe.

As America’s knowledge about the plant grows, the range of subjects our Stoner handles have expanded. While most of the questions we received in previous years asked such things as how to roll a joint or if it’s possible to boof marijuana (it is, but be careful), 2019 queries ventured into slightly more intellectual subjects, such as the recent vaping health crisis, or what the point of useless “indica” and “sativa” designations really is.

As we enter a new year full of unknown and new mysteries, here are five of our most interesting and popular Ask a Stoner questions in 2019.

Remember 2012? Peyton Manning had started his first season with the Broncos, and none of us knew jack about CBD. Seven years later, most of us still know jack about CBD, but at least we recognize how ignorant we are about that and other cannabis compounds.

The letters CBC, CBG and CBN probably look like acronyms for Canadian broadcasting entities to anyone outside of scientists and pot nerds, but they’re actually lesser-known molecular fruits of the cannabis plant. And with hemp’s recent legalization, we’re hearing a lot more about these “new” cannabinoids and their medical and wellness potential. We recently caught up with scientist and former hemp grower Devin Alvarez, CEO of CBD company Straight Hemp, to learn more about this alphabet soup of cannabis.

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