Hemp researchers push for permanent protections

By Marcus Wolf
Source: watertowndailytimes.com

Industrial hemp researchers like businessmen Marc P. Privitera want Congress to establish a permanent protection for hemp by dissociating it from marijuana in federal law.

While New York has backed industrial hemp by authorizing research programs and deeming it an agricultural commodity, federal food and drug laws still correlate it with marijuana, a Schedule One drug.

The federal definition of marijuana encompasses all parts of cannabis sativa, which Lawrence B. “Larry” Smart, a professor of horticulture at Cornell University, said includes hemp. By including industrial hemp in this broad definition, the Drug Enforcement Agency can continue to regulate its growth and use, Mr. Smart said.

“They classified it as the same drug category as heroin, which doesn’t make sense to me,” he said.

The 2014 Farm Bill granted individual states the ability to permit industrial hemp research like the efforts from Cornell University and Mr. Privitera, who wants to create a $10 million hemp industry in Jefferson County by 2020.

Mr. Smart, who has taken the lead on much of Cornell’s hemp research, said the protection is only temporary, as the farm bill must be renewed every five years. Any changes involving hemp in the 2019 Farm Bill could change the landscape for research and production.

“We need stable policy,” Mr. Privitera said. “There’s no clarity.”

Congressmen have introduced two bills in the House that would provide more security for hemp researchers and entrepreneurs: the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2017 and the Industrial Hemp Banking Act.

The farm act proposes to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act, which Mr. Smart said would be crucial for business owners like Mr. Privitera who want to sell hemp products. The banking act proposes to ensure that financial institutions can provide their services to industrial hemp businesses.

Mr Privitera, who owns the business development company Preprocess Inc., said passing the two bills into law is crucial for creating a hemp industry. “If it’s a yes, we have an industry,” he said. “If it’s a no, then the U.S. is not ready for this industry to emerge.”

The state last year issued Mr. Privitera’s permit alongside five other companies to research industrial hemp processing and marketing after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo expanded his 2016 Industrial Hemp Agricultural Research Pilot Program to include private entities.