Monday, January 23, 2017

hemp plant – the scientific history

Source: thcendcbd.com

hemp plant - the scientific history

hemp plant – the scientific history – in this article we would like to present you the readers, the historical use of medical cannabis, and continue there a review of the scientific history of the discovery of the properties of the main active ingredients in the cannabis plant CBD and THC.
In this article we examine these scientific discoveries have been made and when that helped shed light and bring the cannabis plant to the world of science and accessibility of medical use to patients who can benefit from the use of the plant.

hemp plant – the scientific history – We will begin from distant history, discoveries made examination of graves and writings of ancient civilizations regarding the use of cannabis for medical purposes mostly trying to figure out what the science available to us today can stated about the plant active ingredients historically used in humans.

There are many researchers who believe that cannabis sativa was kind of one of the first crops of early humans and spread rapidly among the agricultural population of Afghanistan from across the globe today.

Many ancient cultures in Asia to find proof for medical cannabis, regions such as India, Iran, the Middle East, China and even in Siberia found evidence dating back thousands of years to use cannabis.

hemp plant – the scientific history – a mummy found in a tomb in Siberia and was dated to 3000 BC, was put into an MRI machine to scan its contents. The MRI device works by using magnetic fields which sets the movement of atomic nuclei within the body and scan them to give us a picture of the ingredients and their concentration in different body locations. Siberian mummy found traces of cannabis seeds researchers believe that it took to ease her pain she suffered from breast cancer (as many tests proved the body), Siberian mummy was actually a princess of the tribe of the Siberian steppes which explains the magnificent burial tomb deep in the ground.

The ancient Chinese Emperor, Shen Nung, who is considered the father of Chinese medicine recognized medical uses of cannabis herb in 2600 before the Common Era (approximately) adding the plant to an impressive list of plants and herbs with medicinal changes.

hemp plant – the scientific history – as we continue the historical overview of the hemp plant can not say much about the discoveries and studies until the 20th century. In 1942, cannabis herb was the American instructor medicines and herbs. Bentham 1937 Congress passed Hamikai Legislation against the opinions of many doctors headed by Dr. William Woodward, in front of Congress that year rose by Dr. William asked Congress not to make the forehead cannabis drug Ordinance illegal drugs because of the risk of losing a plant with medicinal properties that can ease for many patients. In 1976, the US Congress is convinced that cannabis medicinal properties and provisions for a way patients can gain access to the plant and metastatic. Some progress, however, resulted from research done at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot. In 1960, researchers found Raphael Mechoulam and Yechiel ingenious material cannabidiol (THC and CBD) is now known as one of the 113 active ingredients in the cannabis plant, but accounts for about 40 percent of its content. The discovery of Israeli researchers focused on the medicinal properties of the material age (who are THC and CBD) and mark it as a huge potential for the treatment of symptoms that as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, chronic pain, insomnia and anxiety.

Disclosure of Israeli researchers and disclosures came after helped establish the science about the physical traits of the main active ingredients in the cannabis plant, is this: si me enough and THC.

hemp plant – the scientific history – Numerous studies regarding the active substances in cannabis in relation to personality disorders and developmental disorders of the cognitive system primarily responsible for our thinking. These studies examined the effects of cannabis from a societal perspective Wow psychologically What is less relevant to us as we seek to examine the scientific medical history, which is derived from experiments and long science that allows us to conclude about the health of the patient.

Studies which attempt to create a bridge of relationship and cause and effect relationship between the use of cannabis obesity behavioral aspect of the phenomenon.

As stated there are so many such studies but are less Rlontim to medical changes we want to cover about cannabis and its derivatives plant.

hemp plant – the scientific history –  by the end of the eighties Hknabis- any cannabis plant research is done by a handful of researchers around the world, with Israel and the Academy which ranked very high, both in terms of discoveries and in terms of gravity invested in research.
In 1988, the US research institute began to research the researchers thought it has been many years since finding another brain receptor for creating cold with opioids, etc. So finding researchers predicted mashed receptor or receptors similar to the active substance in the cannabis plant.
Thus in 1988, researchers found the Institute for Medical Research at the University of St. Louis of the fact that in the mammalian brain have receptors designed to connect (and perhaps create processes in the body) with a cannabis plant seeds proteins. These receptors are protein molecules that are actually on the cell membrane (the material wrapped in the cell) with a function such as proteins that recognize molecules for cell nutritious and help the introduction into the cell. The researchers’ Elin volts and’oiliam Divna not only identified the receptor system reacts with these active ingredients also noticed that these specific receptors the biggest amount of any Noirotrnzmitor (nerve cell) to another is known to science, which is the brain.

hemp plant – the scientific history  – In 1990 he continued to advance research when investigating team led by Ms. Matsuda stated that managed to map the receptors are essentially composed of a chain of amino acids in the cell borders and within cells in the brains of mice (which are known Cmtzoim in humans). In addition, the team also announced he managed to replicate the same receptors of the hemp plant.

hemp plant – the scientific history  – In the following years 1991 and 1992 continued discoveries in the field of pop and cooperation between research teams as it was the team of Israeli research of Dr. paid with the American team at the University of St. Louis helped map out and well defined than the receptors in different minds and cannabis and how they create cold and Thlicm one in the other. they called molecular material found which connects to the active ingredient THC in the name of which translates from ancient Sanskrit language (India), the word ‘blessing’.

hemp plant – the scientific history – Discovery and naming receptors we talked about in the past as CB1 and CB2 and understanding of how R & Human “and” consumption of cannabis plant in the wake of the large amounts of receptors for the active ingredients of this plant, the researchers theories that the plant is in the diet of mammals about 600 million years or so. This high number came Researchers attempt to calculate how long it took to the specific form and reach the huge dimension as they knew her mama nineties of the twentieth century.

hemp plant – the scientific history –  Hknabis- day in 2017 researchers already understand the system Hnboaidit and active ingredients which si me enough and THC. Many studies have helped to map and explain scientifically how the system Hknboaidit correctly responds through negative feedback signals from the active ingredients in the cannabis plant and how they affect our bodies.
There are many studies linking the active ingredients and especially the active ingredient CBD cure various diseases chronic muscle pain (nerve inflammation), stomach pains and more.
In addition there is also a research note the rabbi made about the behavior of these materials and systems for curing cancer cells from the body, sometimes in ways that surprised even the researchers themselves but this particular review we will leave the next time ðŸ™‚


Move Over Cotton, Say Hello to Hemp- The ‘Forbidden’ Crop That is Taking the World by Storm!

By Paul Fassa
Source: countercurrentnews.com

Allowing and encouraging domestic hemp cultivation would be a boon for small farmers, especially organic farmers. I’m talking only about industrial hemp, not medical cannabis/marijuana, which continues to prove its merits and gain acceptance.

Industrial hemp’s use should be a no-brainer. But it’s a complex boondoggle of legal and bureaucratic nonsense even without THC, the molecule that leads to “Reefer Madness”.

Industrial hemp commercial cultivation is legal in Canada. But the USA hemp industry was pushed to the side by government connected industry insiders whose monopolies were threatened when it appeared hemp may boom and compete for the very products of their monopolist concerns.



Circa 1937, the hemp industry had been given a mechanical invention gift known as the decoricator machine was invented. It was a machine that was to hemp what the 19th Century cotton gin was. It replaced hand shredding of hemp to glean its fibers, fibers that could be used for textiles, clothing, paper, and plastic.

With the advent of the decoricator, hemp would have been able to take over competing industries in paper, textiles for clothing and other applications, fuel, and plastics. Growing hemp in abundance was easy, and it’s plant to harvest time was no more than six months.

According to Popular Mechanics during that time, “10,000 acres devoted to hemp will produce as much paper as 40,000 acres of average [forest] pulp land.” Then a  small number of large businesses with competition concerns used high level government connections to push through the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.

The ensuing marijuana scares hyped by movies such as “Reefer Madness” brought about more legislation that would prohibit all hemp cultivation, even hemp without THC.

Prior to this, even without the high speed decoricator, hemp was an easy cash crop for small farmers, some of whom were recruited to continue cultivating hemp during WW II to provide hemp fibers for U.S. Naval ships’ ropes as well as other military applications.

And prior to that, hemp was so important during colonial and early American times that farmers were virtually required to cultivate it along with their other crops.

George Washington – “Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere.”

Thomas Jefferson – “Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country.”

Hemp for Nutrition

Hulled hemp seeds, their powders and cold pressed oils provide all the essential amino acids for easily digested high protein. Hemp is not only very high in omega-3, but it provides an almost perfect ratio of omega-3 to omega-6.

It is truly a super food that you can buy in health food stores or online. The seeds come from Canada, where industrial hemp is legal. Hemp is so nutritionally dense that one could survive on hemp seeds alone during extreme food shortages. If hemp were legal, you could easily grow your own.


Hemp Improves Farming

Hemp plants don’t need pesticides or synthetic fertilizers, which rely mostly on the phosphate industry. A phosphate industry byproduct is the sodium fluoride that is sold to municipality water works for our poisoned tap water.

The runoff from fields of phosphate fertilizers into waterways that merge with seawater is causing all sorts of nitrogen and phosphorous excesses and imbalances, leading to algae that stifles the water’s ecological support systems.

Hemp’s thick roots ward off weeds, and growing hemp improves the soil’s nitrogen, making that soil better for other crops. They would be useful and lucrative rotation crops for organic farmers.

Hemp plants have a growth cycle of only four months. In mild climates, harvesting hemp two times in one year would create an annual cash cow for farmers. The marijuana taboo is eliminated by allowing the male plants to continually pollinate the female plants. This reduces psychotropic THC to legal levels.

Eliminating Toxic Petrochemical Plastics

There is a clump of plastic waste residue larger than the state of Texas floating in the middle of the Pacific. A lot of it is expected to decompose, creating a plastic soup in the ocean. The toxins from this plastic soup spread out into other oceanic regions and are hazardous to fish and bird wildlife. This soup could find its way into our kitchens as well!

All kinds of plastics are produced with hemp, from clear wraps for foods to automobile parts. Hemp plastics are durable and heat resistant. And they are bio-degradable. Recently the French auto industry use hemp to manufacture some of its automobile parts. Henry Ford pioneered this in 1941 when he built his “vegetable car” with hemp and flax. It was stronger and lighter than steel cars.
Ford’s hemp-mobile also used hemp bio-diesel fuel, which creates very little pollution. The petroleum industry didn’t want to see or hear that. Hemp seeds were even used to make paints and lacquers in the mid-1930s.

Petrochemical plastics for all purposes could be replaced with hemp plastics that are non-toxic and bio-degradable. Bye-bye BPA!

Construction Materials for Housing

Amazingly, housing construction materials made from hemp fibers have been discovered to be superior to most cheap materials used in housing construction these days. Ever see a house under construction after its initial framing?

What you’ll usually see before whatever exterior coating is used are sheets of wood substitutes, either pasteboard or particle board or pressboards, some of which are processed and bound with toxic chemicals that can off-gas into interior quarters. It’s cheaper than other materials and used abundantly.

Inexpensive hemp can be made into various different building materials, hempcrete, fiberboard, carpet, stucco, cement blocks, insulation, and plastic. Those materials are stronger and much longer lasting than what’s being used currently. They are also mold and rot free and more fire resistant. And they are environmentally and ecologically friendly and non-toxic.



More Trees for Tree Huggers

Pulp from trees is used to make paper. But anything wood pulp can do, hemp fibers can do better. It’s said that the original Constitution and Bill of Rights were on hemp paper.

Paper from trees can be recycled maybe three times. Hemp paper can be recycled eight times. Since hemp was effectively banned in the USA since 1937, 70% of the USA’s forests have been eliminated. It takes years for trees to grow. Hemp can be gown and harvested within six months.

It’s estimated that one acre of hemp produces more oxygen from CO2 and methane than 25 acres of forest. One idea presented by hemp advocates is to have inner city hemp plots to improve urban air quality. We wouldn’t need bogus carbon tax legislation.

Pulping trees for paper creates more waste, pollution, and consumes more energy than most enterprises. This industry consumes more water than almost all others. It is the fifth largest industry consumer of energy, and it emits a good deal of toxicity in the process.

“Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?” — Henry Ford

Anything the petrochemical industry can produce, hemp can do better without toxic
environmental and human consequences. Deforesting could be a thing of the past if hemp became the major source of construction materials and paper. Heavily pesticide and herbicide sprayed or GMO cotton wouldn’t be necessary, nor would toxic synthetic fibers.

Amazing how such an easily cultivated plant with so many beneficial applications has been so efficiently suppressed by the one or two percent for their purposes while too many among the 98% agreed with that suppression.


Paul Fassa is a contributing staff writer for REALfarmacy.com. His pet peeves are the Medical Mafia’s control over health and the food industry and government regulatory agencies’ corruption that harms more than most realize. Visit his blog by following this link and follow him on Twitter here.

Sources:Ways hemp can change the world:
http://www.collective-evolution.com…Relegalize hemp site:
http://relegalize.info…Ocean plastic soup:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com…Comparing hemp paper to tree paper:
http://www.hemphasis.net…Hemp plastics:
http://en.wikipedia.org…Hemp Plastic website:
http://www.hempplastic.com…Naming names of those behind banning hemp:
http://relegalize.info…How hemp as a cash crop can help our economy:
http://transformwabudget…Paper on the industries behind banning hemp:
http://marijuana-tax-act-1937…The decoricator machine
https://www.erowid.org…
By Paul Fassa  From: Real Farmacy 


THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HEMP CBD AND CANNABIS CBD

By Chuck Ludley
Source: greenrushdaily.com

Even as CBD is becoming a huge factor in the cannabis industry, there’s still some confusion among consumers. One of the big questions many people have is what the differences between hemp CBD and cannabis CBD are?

CBD products are becoming a huge presence in the cannabis industry. At last year’s Cannabis World Congress & Business Expo, for example, CBD companies represented at least 20% of all marijuana companies at the event.
And experts predict massive growth for the CBD sector. One group estimated that the CBD market would grow by 700% between now and 2020. Another analysis said that CBD would become a $3 billion industry by 2021.

Some Basic CBD Info


For starters, here’s some valuable background information. Along with THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), CBD (cannabidiol) is one of the many compounds naturally occurring in the cannabis plant.

These chemicals are called cannabinoids. When they’re consumed, they interact with the body’s endocannabinoid system to produce a range of effects and changes.

THC is the primary psychoactive compound in cannabis. It’s what gets you high. CBD, on the other hand, doesn’t get you high. In fact, CBD counteracts some of the potentially harmful side effects of THC.

But the most important thing about CBD is that has a lot of health benefits. So far, researchers have found that CBD can help treat a range of conditions including nausea, seizures, inflammation, anxiety, certain types of cancers, and much more.

OK, now that we’ve got a general sense of what CBD is, the other big variable is how CBD is obtained. In general, CBD products are derived from either cannabis plants that include THC, CBD, and tons of other cannabinoids, or from hemp plants that contain smaller amounts of CBD and hardly any THC.

Cannabis and hemp aren’t the same plants. Hemp usually refers to a particular strain of cannabis called cannabis ruderalis. It’s relatively low in cannabinoids and is typically grown to produce a variety of fibers and textiles.

Cannabis sativa and cannabis indica, on the other hand, are high in all sorts of cannabinoids. Because of that, these plants produce a range of effects when consumed.


The Differences Between Hemp CBD and Cannabis CBD


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here are some important differences between hemp CBD  and cannabis CBD.

Hemp plants have significantly fewer cannabinoids than cannabis. That means that to get enough CBD, producers have to process many more hemp plants than they do when they get CBD from a cannabis plant. Some experts have said that hemp CBD could, therefore, introduce contaminants and impurities into the final product.

Others have argued that CBD is most effective when it interacts with other cannabinoids and terpenes found in cannabis plants. And since hemp plants are so low in these other, complementary chemicals, hemp CBD might not be quite as potent.

But on the plus side, hemp-derived CBD has historically been easier to get onto the legal market. That’s because although cannabis is illegal at the federal level, many farmers can legally grow hemp as an industrial crop. This means that it’s usually easier to produce CBD products from hemp than it is from cannabis plants.


Changes To CBD Laws


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ut the laws that govern CBD in the U.S. could be getting a little bit trickier. Last month, the DEA made some slight changes to its rules about cannabis and CBD.

It assigned CBD its own legal code, which means it’s now easier for law enforcement to track, monitor, and crack down on CBD. That’s especially true if it was produced by plants with high levels of THC.

Despite this adjustment, many have said it wouldn’t really change the actual CBD industry. As long as CBD comes from plants with low THC, it should still be relatively safe from a legal perspective. And that means that hemp-derived CBD should still be the easiest to produce and move onto the legal market.


The Final Hit


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egardless of this recent legal change, it seems clear that CBD is here to stay. It’s already established itself as a huge industry with massive potential for growth. And current research suggests that it can be a powerful medicinal product.

It also seems clear that there are real differences between hemp CBD and cannabis CBD. While many claim that CBD from cannabis plants can be especially potent and pure, hemp-derived CBD may still be the safest regarding legality. 

That means that hemp-derived CBD is likely to be the most widely accessible. As cannabis laws continue to change, however, expect the CBD industry to adjust and evolve. In the end, hopefully, that means that more and more people will have access to high quality medicinal CBD.



8 WAYS HEMP CAN KEEP YOU HEALTHY IN 2017

By Mary Biles
Source: collective-evolution.com

hemp


Hemp truly is a miracle plant. Aside from being an amazing, sustainable fibre for clothing and building material, the seeds can also provide the body with some amazing health benefits.

Here are 8 ways that hemp can help keep you healthy!

1. Hemp Contains Cannabidiol

While hemp barely contains THC — the chemical that gets people high — it does share many of the other plant compounds, most notably cannabidiol. Also known as CBD, this cannabinoid has been shown to have many health giving properties. CBD is found in the flowers, stalks, and leaves, but not the seeds of the hemp plant.

There have been some high profile cases of children with rare forms of epilepsy who, after taking cannabidiol made from hemp, have reduced their seizures from hundreds a week to almost zero. In the UK it has recently been reclassified as medicine and is under review by the Medical Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA), while in the United States its legality varies state by state.

2. Hemp Contains Powerful Antioxidants

January is the month of the detox diet. We’ve overindulged on sugar, are oozing alcohol from our very pores, and feel like a walking chemical disaster zone. So while it’s the perfect time to hit the raw juices and cut out chocolate for a few days, there’s actually a toxic battle being waged 365 days of the year that hemp can help us keep in order.

Our cells, just by breathing and consuming energy, create toxic waste called free radicals, as does exposure to chemicals, pollutants, and emotional stress. Free radicals are molecules that are missing an electron and, not content by their incomplete status, steal electrons from other proteins in the body, causing what’s known as oxidative stress. Left unchecked, this can damage our DNA, cause the body to perform poorly, and lead to the onset of age related diseases.

To counteract the damage by free radicals, the body produces antioxidants, which can also be found in most fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.

Turns out the hemp plant is packed full of antioxidants, with studies showing our old friend cannabidiol to be a powerful source, even more so than vitamin C and E. The plant also contains other free radical fighters such as flavonoids.  

3. Hemp Is Anti-Inflammatory

Inflammation is a healthy biological process that forms part of our immune response to injury or infection. But it’s when that targeted inflammation turns into something more chronic that the problems can start. Indeed, long term, systemic inflammation is viewed as a precursor to a host of illnesses such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

But the hemp plant can be a natural, drug-free way to reduce inflammation in the body. The main player in the piece once more is cannabidiol (CBD), with studies showing it to reduce the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, the signalling proteins made by immune cells that are overproduced in patients with autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.  
Scientists have also noted that CBD activates the Vanilloid receptor (TRPV-1), known to mediate pain perception, inflammation, and body temperature.

4. Hemp Helps Calm Your Mind and Protects the Brain

One of the reasons many people take CBD extracted from hemp is because they find it helps them with feelings of anxiety. This isn’t because they’re stoned — CBD doesn’t activate the same receptors in the brain as its psychoactive cousin, THC — but it is a partial agonist of the serotonin receptor 5HT1-A, interacting just enough to bring about an anti-anxiety effect.

Studies also suggest CBD’s ability to promote hippocampal neurogenesis (the part of the brain responsible for memory, emotion, and the autonomic nervous system) could explain why anxiety is reduced.

But it’s not just hemp’s anti-anxiety benefits that are a boost to our brains. CBD has even been declared a neuroprotectant by the U.S. governmentand studies show the cannabinoid may slow the onset of Alzheimer’s by reducing neuroinflammation.

5. Hemp May Improve Heart Health

Studies show a diet rich in the essential fatty acid Omega 3 can lower the risk of heart attacks, reduces cholesterol, and is both anti-thrombotic (prevents blood clots) and anti-atherosclerotic (prevents the buildup of fatty deposits in your arteries).

Most studies on heart health talk of Omega 3 source from fish oil, but if you are vegetarian or concerned about polluted fish stocks, hemp seeds could provide a plant based alternative.

6. Hemp Can Help Balance Your Endocannabinoid System

Okay, so you may be saying to yourself at this point, “I didn’t even know I had an endocannabinoid system, let alone that it might need balancing.”

You’re not alone. The endocannabinoid system was discovered in the 1990s and is basically a vast network of receptors and cannabis-like chemicals (endocannabinoids) in the body. Its purpose is to modulate functions such as sleep, appetite, mood, pain, and reproduction. Sometimes this system can get out of balance, with scientists believing this to be a contributing factor behind many illnesses.

CBD, while not interacting directly with the endocannabinoid receptors, does increase the levels of the feel good endocannabinoid Anandamide in the body, which scientists believe is just one strategy to strengthen a depleted endocannabinoid system.

7. Hemp Helps Get Your Hormones in Balance

If you’re a woman, you’ve probably experienced hormonal imbalances such as premenstrual syndrome (PMS) at some point in your life. One contributing factor is thought to be elevated levels of the hormone prolactin.

Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), found in hemp seeds, produces prostaglandin E1, which studies show reduces the hormone disrupting effects of prolactin. In a study of women with PMS, taking one gram of essential fatty acids (including 210 mg of GLA) per day resulted in a significant reduction in symptoms.

8. Hemp Oil Is Good for Your Skin

Whether you’ve got problem skin conditions such as acne or eczema or you just want to prevent premature aging, the hemp plant can give your skin a boost from the inside and out.
Remember what we said previously about antioxidants? Our skin is bombarded on a daily basis by free radicals and toxins, so if our beauty basic is something that is both moisturizing and provides an antioxidant shield, it might just be the ultimate anti-ageing double whammy.

CBD is currently being touted as the ultimate, supercharged ingredient for problem skin due to its anti-inflammatory nature and anti-seborrheic effects — which basically means it prevents the overproduction of sebum in the skin commonly associated with conditions such as eczema, dermatitis, and acne.  

So, there we have it. All hail the mighty hemp!

Who knew that it was such a health hero of a plant? It can literally work its magic from our heads to our toes, and from inside our cells through to the biggest organ of our body, the skin.

Whether using it as superfood supplement in the form of cold pressed hemp seed oil or taking hemp extract CBD oil to keep our health issues at bay, it is most certainly an ancient answer to many of our modern day woes.   

Hemp — be humble no more. Join us with pride in a healthy 2017.



Steve Allin e-book is now in release

Source: hemptoday.net




Hemp builder Steve Allin has released “Hemp Can’t Save the Planet, But it Might Save Humanity” – an e-book version of his live stand-up show by the same title. The book shows how hemp can make a positive contribution to many problems facing the planet.
Allin, Director of the International Hemp Building Association, is also the author of Building with Hemp, which is in it’s second edition; he also authored the IHBA’s Hemp Building Best Practices Guide, published in 2015.
The new e-book is available for €14.95 at SeedPress.


The DEA’s latest move has many in the marijuana industry worried about the next four years

Source: rare.us

Last month, the Drug Enforcement Administration quietly updated the Federal Register to include a new drug code for “marihuana extracts” under the Controlled Substances Act. The DEA asserts that the move was meant to better track these materials and to comply with international treaties, saying:
Under international drug control treaties administered by the United Nations, some differences exist between the regulatory controls pertaining to marihuana extract versus those for marihuana and tetrahydrocannabinols. The DEA has previously established separate code numbers for marihuana and for tetrahydrocannabinols, but not for marihuana extract. To better track these materials and comply with treaty provisions, DEA is creating a separate code number for marihuana extract.
At first glance, this seems to be a purely clerical change. However, a problem lies within the DEA’s definition of a marijuana extract, which they say is “an extract containing one or more cannabinoids that has been derived from any plant of the genus Cannabis, other than the separated resin (whether crude or purified) obtained from the plant.”
The issue here is that only the cannabis plant itself had been previously scheduled as a controlled substance, not its stems or stocks, and that “any plant of the genus Cannabis” could include hemp — which was determined to be distinct from marijuana in the 2014 Farm Bill — and its products. In fact, the Controlled Substances Act clearly states that marijuana does not include “the mature stalks of such plant, fiber produced from such stalks, oil or cake made from the seeds of such plant, any other compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of such mature stalks (except the resin extracted therefrom), fiber, oil, or cake, or the sterilized seed of such plant which is incapable of germination.”
So, in defining a marijuana extract as any cannabinoid derived from any part of the plant, the DEA is ignoring the fact that certain parts of the plant weren’t previously scheduled. It’s also problematic because CBD oil, which is commonly used for medicinal purposes and does not contain THC (the psychoactive element of marijuana), and hemp were not specifically mentioned in the Controlled Substances Act beforehand.
However, it seems the new drug code has now made these extracts Schedule I controlled substances.
“This would be the equivalent of making lemons a Schedule I controlled substance and then later suddenly saying that all extracts made from the leaves of lemon trees are bound to the laws surrounding lemons, even though only the lemon fruit itself is a scheduled substance,” Zack Ruskin of SF Weekly analogizes.
The DEA, however, claims that it is merely amending preexisting rules to separate one substance into two categories for “more appropriate accounting,” with spokesman Russ Baer saying, “The FRN published earlier this week did not have anything to do with re-scheduling CBD or anything at all to do with hemp.”
This is a misleading interpretation of the law at best because not all marijuana extracts originally belonged to Schedule 1 or any Schedule for that matter. At worst, it’s an unlawful expansion of the definition of marijuana because the administrative update arguably created new law, something that the agency has no authority to do. Because a scheduling action didn’t technically occur, the DEA maintains that the new code changes nothing in regard to what was or wasn’t already a controlled substance. However, even if this is the case, it’s still troubling for two reasons: it creates confusion, and it opens the door for harsher marijuana regulations under a soon-to-be attorney general who is very anti-marijuana reform.
“Substances that have not been properly scheduled should not be on the list as this can create confusion in the marketplace and also result in other federal agencies improperly treating legal substances as controlled,” the Hemp Industries Association said in a statement. In other words, it’s now unclear to CBD and hemp producers whether or not their products are illegal, and it’s an invitation to the national government to treat them as such, even if that was not the DEA’s intention.
With the growing legalization of recreational and medical marijuana in states across the country, the expansion to include all marijuana extracts under Schedule I is worrisome because it gives the federal government more control. Although the DEA has scaled back on targeting producers and consumers of marijuana products who are in compliance with their state’s laws during the Obama administration, there is nothing stopping them from ramping those efforts back up under a President Trump.
Attorney Michael Cindrich told Forbes, “I think the DEA is testing how this president’s administration will respond to the marijuana issue. A push by the DEA to both regulate this and other related products is testing the waters as to the level of control.”
While it may not happen, the marijuana industry’s concern that progress could soon be reversed is valid, given that Trump’s attorney general pick Jeff Sessions opposes efforts to reform marijuana policy, even once saying that “good people don’t smoke marijuana.” Sessions has also said that we “need grown-ups in charge in Washington to say marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized, it ought not to be minimized, that it’s in fact a very real danger.”
If confirmed by the Senate, Sessions will have the authority to roll back decades of marijuana progress and to challenge medical and recreational marijuana laws in states that have approved legalizing the plant for those uses. After the DEA’s action, he could even do the same in regard to marijuana extracts when he previously would not have had that power. So, while consumers and producers of marijuana extracts may be able to continue business as usual for now, they will certainly be on edge over the next four years.