Pot banking backers push hemp, 'Choke Point' plans to lure GOP votes

By ZACHARY WARMBRODT
Source: politico.com



A bill that would protect banks doing business with the cannabis industry in states where the drug is legal already has significant bipartisan support. | Richard Vogel/AP Photo

Backers of landmark legislation that would empower banks to enter the cannabis industry are considering expanding the bill to win over skeptical Republican lawmakers.

Among their pitches: offering greater protection for products derived from hemp, a cannabis plant used to make textiles as well as cannabidiol — a growing industry in Sen. Mitch McConnell's Kentucky — and preventing any revival of an Obama-era program that GOP lawmakers say targeted payday lenders and gun retailers.

With the House expected to vote on the bill in the coming weeks, Democrats and Republicans who support the banking overhaul are talking with GOP lawmakers who are uncomfortable with easing federal restrictions on marijuana but say they may come around if these other issues are addressed in the legislation.

The bill, which would protect banks doing business with the cannabis industry in states where the drug is legal, already has significant bipartisan support. But running up the number of Republican votes could bolster efforts to sell the legislation in the GOP-led Senate, where senior Republicans are wary of taking it up because federal law lists marijuana as a controlled dangerous substance.
"The stronger showing we have in the House, the better our chances in the Senate," said Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), the lead sponsor of the legislation.

The fact that greater numbers of Republicans may be in play, including those who previously opposed the bill, illustrates how fluid the politics around marijuana have become as states across the country legalize cannabis products. The struggle to win over more Republicans for a narrow, industry-backed bill also underscores the obstacles looming for cannabis legalization at the federal level.

The bill is a high priority for the banking industry, and enactment during this session of Congress would be a major victory. Banks and credit unions are lobbying for the legislation because of concerns that federal regulators will penalize them for serving cannabis businesses now legal at the state level. They're supporting the stopgap measure because it's unclear when the federal ban at the heart of the conflict will be lifted.

The potential amendments that House lawmakers are considering may not only increase the GOP vote tally but may also address priorities like hemp for McConnell, the Senate majority leader, and a controversial program under President Barack Obama's Justice Department that was known as "Operation Choke Point" for Senate Banking Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).

One proposal would extend the bill's financial services safe harbor to products derived from hemp, a non-intoxicating plant whose fibers can be used for clothing, plastics and rope that was removed last year from the Controlled Substances list.

Rep. Andy Barr, who opposes marijuana legalization and voted against the cannabis banking bill in committee, said he has had extensive discussions with Perlmutter about adding protections for hemp products.

Barr, a Kentucky Republican, said he’s responding to concerns that credit card processors can’t differentiate between cannabidiol derived from industrial hemp and marijuana. Otherwise known as CBD, the cannabis product has grown increasingly popular as a treatment for a range of health issues.
If the legislation addressed hurdles that hemp businesses face when accessing credit card processing services and banking, "then that helps me get to a yes," Barr said.

"They need Republicans on this bill," he said.

The other potential addition being discussed would prohibit regulatory agencies from pressuring banks into cutting off customers because they're out of favor politically.

The proposal, which the House passed 395-2 as a standalone bill in 2017, is intended to prevent the potential comeback of Operation Choke Point.

Choke Point sought to cut off fraudulent merchants from the financial system, but Republican critics argued for years that it discouraged banks from serving a range of lawful businesses, including small-dollar lenders and gun sellers.

Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.), who has been driving the legislation, is talking with Perlmutter about adding it to the cannabis banking bill.

Luetkemeyer voted against the marijuana banking bill in committee and said he still isn't convinced that it would solve banks' legal problems with cannabis.

But he may come around to supporting it as a vehicle to cement the end of Choke Point.

Barr predicted that Perlmutter would be able to win over "a lot more Republicans, especially in the Senate" if a Choke Point amendment were added.

"If it's a chance to get my bill across the finish line, it's something that we need to consider," Luetkemeyer said.

The bill in the House has 184 co-sponsors, including 20 Republicans. Perlmutter said he hoped to add about a dozen more members to the list.

"You want it to be as broad-based and solid a vote as possible to have momentum and open the eyes of folks over in the Senate side," Perlmutter said.

Five GOP senators are co-sponsoring the Senate version. The Republican lead in the Senate is Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), who is up for reelection next year in a state with a major cannabis industry.
"We've had a lot of good discussions about it over here with a number of members," Gardner said.
Though the White House has not yet announced its position on Perlmutter's legislation, President Donald Trump said last year that he “probably will end up supporting” a separate Gardner bill that would shield cannabis businesses from federal restrictions if they're complying with state or tribal laws allowing the sale of marijuana.

One prominent hurdle in the Senate is Crapo, who leads the Senate Banking Committee. The Idaho Republican has so far been unwilling to commit to taking up the legislation.

"As long as cannabis is illegal under federal law, it seems to me to be difficult for us to resolve the issue," he said in April.

But Crapo has also been one of the most prominent critics of the Choke Point program. In an interview, he said he would be interested in any vehicle that would stop it from coming back to life, though he's unsure the amendment would change his approach to cannabis legislation.

Bank trade groups from all 50 states and Puerto Rico wrote to Crapo recently and urged him to move forward with hearings on their cannabis concerns.

"I don't feel pressure," he said. "I'm looking at it but I haven't made any decisions."

FACEBOOK: STOP CENSORING HEMP

Source: thehia.org

The HIA® Launches National Campaign Aimed at Changing Facebook’s Advertising Policy for the Hemp Industries

PHOENIX, May 21, 2019 -- Hemp Industries Association® (HIA®), in association with Hoban Law Group, Bluebird Botanicals, and Bish Enterprises, is launching a national campaign aimed at addressing Facebook’s current advertising policy of prohibiting the marketing and promotion of industrial hemp via Facebook and Instagram. Although hemp was redefined as an agricultural commodity, explicitly removing it from the purview of the Controlled Substances Act and the jurisdiction of the Drug Enforcement Administration with the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, the current Facebook policy still classifies hemp as an illegal, prescription or recreational drug.   “With the passage of the farm bill, it seemed there would be a new dawn for stakeholders of the hemp industries absolving them from confusion over whether hemp was indeed a controlled substance -- it's not,” said Colleen Keahey Lanier, Executive Director of the Hemp Industries Association. “But hemp entrepreneurs nationwide are currently being denied access to one of the most powerful marketing platforms in the world for small businesses restricted to outdated policies that continue to conflate hemp with marijuana. Not all of Cannabis is considered a drug, and Facebook’s new AI technology is already obsolete if it continues to recognize images of Cannabis as a controlled substance generally.”

Marketing limitations posed by Facebook actually exceed what is required by law and have had a significant impact on hemp companies’ capacity to develop their digital presence. Facebook, with its 2.38 billion monthly users, represents a massive market for small businesses. For new entrepreneurs looking to break into the growing hemp industry, being denied access to the social media platform’s advertising capabilities represents a massive roadblock. “Our goal is to change Facebook’s current policy by applying pressure in the most public way possible,” said Lanier. “They use a wide-reaching platform to communicate and so are we.”

The Times Square ad will run until August 24, 2019.

The digital advertisement, which simply reads “Facebook: Stop Censoring Hemp” will run daily in Times Square until August 24. In addition, the Association is coordinating a massive grassroots campaign among its more than 1,500 members in support of the much-needed policy change. “We are asking all hemp supporters -- advocates, farmers, processors, manufacturers, retailers and consumers -- to join the movement and help us turn Facebook green,” Lanier said. “Hemp advertisements are allowed in Times Square, so why not on Facebook? Hemp is completely legal under federal law.” The Times Square declaration also promotes a call to action, urging viewers to visit the campaign’s official communication portal, HempIsLegal.org, to sign a petition of support. For more information about the campaign, visit: www.HempIsLegal.org

 

Newly legalized hemp industry set to create a jobs boom in the US

By Bob Woods
Source: cnbc.com

KEY POINTS

• A provision in the 2018 Farm Bill makes hemp, marijuana’s no-buzz cousin, no longer a federally illegal substance.
• It allows farmers and other cultivators to grow the leafy, lanky plant and sell its harvest to processors so they can make hemp-based products ranging from foods, beverages and cosmetics to paper, clothing and building materials.
• Twenty-four states have hemp farming.
• CareerBuilder, Indeed, ZipRecruiter and other mainstream job websites list hemp openings.

Damian Farris, co-owner of Colorado Cultivars Hemp Farm, looks at the crop before it is harvested on September 5, 2017 in Eaton, Colorado.

RJ Sangosti | Denver Post | Getty Images

It won’t get you high, but lots of people are high on hemp. Thanks to the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill last December, hemp — marijuana’s no-buzz cousin — is no longer a federally illegal controlled substance. A provision in the bill allows farmers and other cultivators to grow the leafy, lanky plant, cannabis sativa L, and sell its harvest to processors, who in turn extract and market raw materials to producers of hemp-based products, everything from foods, beverages and cosmetics to paper, clothing and building materials.

 

Another by-product of legal hemp will be tens of thousands of new jobs across multiple sectors in the very near future. Besides hiring workers in agriculture, processing and manufacturing, the still-budding industry — with $1.1 billion in revenues 2018, estimated to more than double by 2022 to $2.6 billion, according to New Frontier Data — will need accountants, lawyers, compliance officers, government regulators, IT specialists, financial and insurance experts, transporters, researchers and lab technicians, marketers, CFOs, CEOs and various retail employees.

Some of those workers will be hired by existing companies, such as banks, truckers, farm equipment makers and drugstore chains, while others will employed by opportunistic start-ups.

 

“Job creation is going to happen in every economic bracket,” said Erica McBride Stark, executive director of the DC-based National Hemp Association. She had just returned from the 6th annual NoCo Hemp Expo in Denver, twice the size of last year’s, drawing more than 225 exhibitors and 10,000 attendees. “The hemp industry will create high-skilled management jobs, labor-type jobs and everything in between,” Stark said. “It’s going to touch all of society.”

WATCH NOW

VIDEO01:37

Farm bill may be big win for hemp-based product manufacturers

The foundations are in place for tremendous job growth in the coming months. Indeed reported a spike in hemp-related job openings early this year, and HempStaff has seen its hemp jobs double from a year ago, now representing 16% of its recruiting business. Still, it will take at least a year to gather hard data from government and independent sources. “I expect job growth will more dramatically move in the second half of this year as more processors come online and as we approach harvest of hemp plants,” Stark said.

The marijuana economy

Of course, there’s already a separate and thriving industry for legal marijuana, to date approved for medicinal use in 34 states and recreational adult use in 10 states and D.C. Retail sales at regulated marijuana dispensaries reached around $9 billion last year, according to Marijuana Business Daily. Note, though, that pot remains a federally illegal Schedule I controlled substance, so factor in the nebulous black market and that sales figure may be as high as $52.5 billion.

It should be noted, too, that despite hemp’s new federal status, the Farm Bill stipulates that individual states can choose to establish their own agriculture and commerce programs, or not. As of February, 41 states allowed cultivation of hemp for commercial, research or pilot programs, although only 24 states had farmers actually growing hemp last year. Total hemp acreage in the U.S. was at 78,176 acres, up from 25,713 in 2017, the advocacy group Vote Hemp estimates, and the acreage should be considerably higher in the coming years.

In this July 5, 2018 photo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell inspects a piece of hemp taken from a bale of hemp at a processing plant in Louisville, Ky. McConnell led the push in Congress to legalize hemp.

AP Photo | Bruce Schreiner

Ever since the Farm Bill passed, we have seen a huge increase in hemp clients coming forward, saying they need staff now or in the next few months.

James Yagielo

CEO OF HEMPSTAFF

In January, Canopy was granted a license by New York State to process and produce hemp, the first step in the company’s plan to invest $100 million–$150 million in the state’s economically distressed Southern Tier region.

 

“Wow, do they need work,” remarked Bruce Linton, co-CEO and chairman of Canopy, adding that 200 people will initially be hired primarily in farming and processing. Hemp is going to create jobs where they’re needed, he opined, because growing, processing and making hemp products will be more cost-effective in depressed areas versus cities with higher real estate prices and labor costs.

 

That strategy was likely on the mind of Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as he championed the Farm Bill’s hemp legalization provision, seen as a job-creating boon among the Bluegrass State’s dwindling tobacco farmers and coal workers. A major producer before hemp was outlawed in 1937, Kentucky has been cultivating hemp under a pilot program in the 2014 Farm Bill.

 

This year its department of agriculture approved more than 42,000 acres for hemp, based on applications from 1,035 farmers and 130 processors, with expectations that 20,000 acres will ultimately be planted this spring and summer for fall harvest. That compares to 6,700 planted acres in 2018, comprising 210 farmers and 72 processors. “It’s not uncommon to see a lot of former tobacco farmers looking at industrial hemp as an opportunity,” said Ryan Quarles, the department’s commissioner.

 

One of them is Joe Sisk, 45, who last planted tobacco on his farm near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in 1998 and is now dedicating about 40 acres to hemp, alongside traditional crops. “Hemp is here to stay,” he said, adding that he hears talk of other tobacco farmers switching to hemp. “This is not some fad. Kentucky will have a very substantial hemp industry.”

 

For more on tech, transformation and the future of work, join CNBC at @ Work: Human Capital + Finance Summit in Chicago on July 19.

Hemp micro-decorticator unveiled by Latvian entrepreneur

Source: hemptoday.net



The HurdMaster Micro Decorticator, a small-scale fiber processing unit designed by Latvian entrepreneur Kristaps Eglitas, was unveiled today at HempToday’s Hemp Machines & Technology Summit.

The machine is designed for flower and seed growers who want to monetize leftover fiber from their harvests, Eglitis said. It is intended for farms of 2-5 hectares (about 6-10 acres).

Hemp stakeholders from 12 countries attended the Summit at HempToday Center in Poland.
“We’re getting excellent hurds for hempcrete,” Eglitis told attendees at the Summit before demonstrating the sleek, boxy, stainlesss-steel unit, which is small enough to fit in a car. “We processed some fiber to insulate my own house which we’re now working on, and the hurds’ performance in the mix was excellent,” Eglitis said.

Orders begin in July

Orders for the purchase of the HurdMaster will begin in late July, Eglitis said, with delivery two months from the order date. He expects to ship the first machines in September.

The HurdMaster was inspired in part by Eglitis’ research of a decorticator project started by Australian-Latvian Voldemars Cirulis, who built a much bigger machine while living in Australia in the early 2000s.

Eglitis designed the HurdMaster with help from a student at Latvian Technical University after intense research on decortiation technology.

He eventually bought the machine from Cirulis and studied its components and how it functions – research he said was critical in the design process.

Engineering collaboration

Eglitis, who designs and builds metal interior features such as staircases, has worked in metal constrution for more than 20 years.

He is collaborating with Peruza (peruza.com/products) a leading manufacturer of machinery for fish processing, developing engineering enhancements that will reduce the HurdMaster’s weight while boosting efficiency. While Eglitis is satisfied with hurd quality turned out by the machine, planned adjustments to improve the quality of technical fiber output are still being worked out, he said. Plans are in the works to build a bigger model decorticator as well, Eglitis said.

Just last month, Eglitis secured an EU grant he’ll use to build an engineering building, he said.
While Eglitis has now lost contact with Cirulis, 96, who is blind and infirm, he knows the old inventor would be proud. “Voldemars would be happy to see that his work has inspired me to move forward,” Eglitis said.

Square Quietly Launches Program For CBD Cannabis Company Credit Card Processing

By Tom Angell
Source: forbes.com

Companies that sell cannabis products—even those consisting of CBD derived from hemp, which was legalized in the U.S. through the Farm Bill late last year—are continuing to have trouble accessing basic financial services that are available to businesses in other sectors. That includes being able to maintain bank accounts and process their customers' credit cards.

 

The latter problem could be solved under a new pilot program that has quietly been launched by the payment processing service Square.

Getty

 

“Square is currently conducting an invite-only beta for some CBD products,” a spokesperson for the company said in an email.

When asked about the reasons for the launching the new program, which comes after years of refusing to work with CBD companies, the spokesperson said that the company closely watches evolving public policies and strives to create new opportunities for clients.

In any case, Square's beta effort comes just at the right time for businesses in the growing CBD space. This month, US Bank subsidiary Elavon, which has until recently handled payment processing for companies selling products with the non-intoxicating cannabis compound, is moving to shutter those accounts.

 

Is Hemp Stronger Than Steel?

By Kayla Burns
Source: marijuanabreak.com



Humanity has made more than a handful of blunders, and not fully realizing the potential of industrial hemp certainly belongs on the list of worst mistakes made in the last 100 years. It seems too incredible to be true, but hemp IS stronger than steel, and significantly so. Hemp is also the perfect substitute for trees when making paper, and at least 75% of all paper made in the United States pre-1833 came from hemp.

Government studies from over 100 years ago found that an acre of hemp equated to four acres of trees and at that time, it was predicted that all paper could come from hemp by the 1940s. This would have meant minimal cutting down on trees, and a far healthier planet for generations to come.

Instead came the so-called War on Marijuana, which was really a means of solidifying the fortunes of William Randolph Hearst and the DuPonts, among others. As well as making paper, hemp was responsible for 80% of all fabrics, linen, clothes, and textiles until the development of the Cotton Gin in the 1790s.

For all the remarkable properties of the hemp plant; however, few are more impressive than its strength. When you hear that hemp is stronger than steel; it is NOT hyperbole, it is a fact!

Why is Hemp Stronger Than Steel?

When measuring strength, we fall back on one of two methods. The first involves cracking and breaking, like a dry tree branch which is stiff and doesn’t bend. You need to apply a significant amount of pressure to have an impact. Ultimately, the branch cracks and breaks rather than bending.
The second method of measuring strength is bending and mending. When you put a lot of pressure on certain materials, they will bend rather than breaking, and can potentially be mended.

In simple terms, it takes twice as much pressure to crack and break hemp than steel. Furthermore, hemp ‘bends and mends’ approximately six times better than steel. To be clear, we are not saying that the hemp plant is harder to bend than steel. What we are saying is that hemp fibers have a better strength to weight ratio than steel, and it is far cheaper to manufacture.

You may have heard about how Henry Ford created a plastic hemp car that was ten times stronger than steel. Of course, this isn’t the full story. Ford’s famous ‘hemp car’ consisted only of a small amount of hemp.

Ford’s dream was to create a vehicle from farm products during the Great Depression to help out America’s farmers. At the time, the car was an estimated 300 pounds lighter than the steel cars of the day. In a 1941 interview, Ford said his car would be lighter, safer, and less expensive than his other cars.

While the vehicle itself was real, it wasn’t made entirely from hemp. Other materials included wheat, soy beans, and corn. There were promotional videos which showed the incredible strength of the car but sadly, it never came to fruition.

Hemp is Stronger Than Other Manmade Materials, Too

Thomas Edison stumbled upon the ability to made a new super-strength material way back in 1879 during a light-bulb filament experiment. Edison heated splinters of bamboo to incredible temperatures, and the result was strands of carbon capable of withstanding tremendous heat; the material was also able to conduct electricity.

Fast forward to 1958, and Roger Bacon expanded on the experiment by creating ‘whiskers’ with triple the stiffness of steel, and 10 times the tensile strength. It was eventually manufactured into a substance we know as carbon fiber. However, hemp has an even greater tensile strength!

A new material was ‘discovered’ by the journal Science in 2004. Known as graphene, this material is a form of carbon which exists as a sheet with the thickness of an atom. It is said to be 100 times stronger than steel, AND it conducts electricity better than copper. All it takes is 1% of graphene mixed into plastics to provide conductivity.

Graphene is a ‘super-material,’ yet hemp can mimic many of its best properties. For example, waste fibers from hemp crops could be turned into high-performance energy devices. At an American Chemical Society meeting in 2014, a team of researchers produced the results of a remarkable experiment. They subjected cannabis bark to high temperatures to turn the material into carbon nanosheets, and were able to create supercapacitors at a level equal to, or greater than, graphene.

For the record, supercapacitors are energy storage devices which transform the way your electronics are powered. Old-fashioned batteries store reserves of energy and drip-feed it slowly. In contrast, supercapacitors discharge their full load, which makes them ideal for machines such as electric cars where quick bursts of power are essential.

Graphene makes excellent supercapacitors but is incredibly expensive to produce. While hemp is unable to do everything graphene can, it works just as well for energy storage and costs a few hundred dollars per ton.

Final Thoughts on Hemp

While we continue to waste millions of dollars trying to find new super-materials, there is a natural alternative growing readily around us. The Farm Bill of 2018 has finally legalized the growth of industrial hemp in the United States, which is great news going forward. It is about time that America followed the lead of China, where hemp is widely cultivated. Even our neighbors, Canada, are getting in on the act as their textiles industry grows.

Industrial hemp is inexpensive to produce, and it takes just a few months for it to grow. The plant has an incredible number of applications, and it is about time they were finally used. It seems astonishing to learn that hemp fibers are superior to steel on a strength to weight ratio. It is something we have known for a very long time, and it is a tragedy that hemp has remained relatively unused over the last century or so. The Farm Bill of 2018 will see a revival of industrial hemp growth in what is a case of ‘better late than never.’

Hemp oil misconceptions

Source: augustafreepress.com



As the hemp oil industry builds, so are hemp oil misconceptions. It’s hard to know the difference between fact and fiction. Through this guide, we’ll tackle some of the biggest misconceptions and help you understand why they’re false or which might be half-truths.

Our goal is to help educate you about hemp oil, what’s fact, what’s fiction and how to buy the best hemp oil product for your individual needs.

Hemp oil is in the spotlight around the world. Its potential is still being discovered. Misconceptions seem to pop up almost daily.

Hemp Oil is Purely for Medical Use

There are several cannabinoids in the hemp plant. The intoxicating cannabinoid is stigmatized as being merely recreational, but this is not true. All of the cannabinoids in the hemp plant have therapeutic or supportive value. Hemp oil isn’t used only for supportive purposes.

The federal government has recognized that other cannabinoids have healing potential. Even medications that contain intoxicating cannabinoids have been approved for wide distribution.

Hemp Oil Isn’t Psychoactive

It’s often said that hemp oil isn’t psychoactive, but this one of the biggest hemp oil misconceptions. It’s just non-intoxicating, it’s not non-psychoactive. Psychoactive is defined as “altering the mind”. The change that occurs, however, does not need to be one that causes fogginess, impairment or intoxication.

This is why it’s often said that hemp oil is non-psychoactive, but in reality – it is. It’s a positive psychoactivity aimed at supporting appropriate responses. Hemp oil may support better responses to stress, anxiety, depression, inflammation and other actions/reactions in the body. Alterations in response occur.

Hemp Oil Works Best Alone

Some say that the dominant cannabinoid in hemp oil works best all by itself, but this isn’t necessarily true. Sure, a single cannabinoid might work a little bit for some people, but it really does work best when combined with other cannabinoids and terpenes to generate the entourage effect.

Studies have proven that a combination of cannabinoids is superior to a single cannabinoid in terms of efficacy.  Every cannabinoid has a unique profile. Those profiles, when combined, sometimes act as double power when supporting systems and functions in the body.

What if your state prohibits specific cannabinoids? Well, this is a rather simple solution. Yes, some states do restrict some cannabinoids (the intoxicating ones), but it’s okay. All you need to do is choose a full spectrum or broad spectrum hemp oil product that also includes plant-based terpenes, like those offered right here at ILGM. The entourage effect is still achievable with a variety of cannabinoids and plant-based terpenes.

Yes, it’s a big one of the hemp oil misconceptions that a single cannabinoid is more beneficial for the body than a combination.

Hemp Oil is a Sedative

Hemp oil itself isn’t sedative, so this is another one of the popular hemp oil misconceptions. In higher doses it might appear more relaxing, but it’s not sedating. Myrcene as an ingredient may induce a sedative effect, but this plant-based terpenes also has a lot of value on its own. It’s a terpene to look for if sleep seems to be the enemy or pain takes over from time-to-time.

Small doses of hemp oil could actually be energizing – debunking this myth.

Single Molecule Pharmaceuticals are Superior

This is one of the hemp oil misconceptions that is laughable. The federal government and Big Pharma have both acknowledged that single cannabinoids have applicable value but they also say that the cannabinoid profile of an entire plant does not. How does this make sense? It doesn’t.

Without multiple cannabinoids being present, the entourage effect is impossible. The entourage effect refers to a variety of cannabinoids and terpenes working together creating synergy in the body. A single molecule cannot do that. This is why whole plant medicine (full and broad spectrum hemp oil preparations) is touted as being superior to isolate options.

Psychoactivity is a Bad Thing

It’s said that psychoactivity is a negative effect, but in the case of hemp oil, this just isn’t true. Psychoactivity just refers to an altering or change in the mind – it doesn’t mean someone has to be impaired by something for it to be psychoactive. Hemp oil is psychoactive, as we mentioned above, but not in a bad way. It promotes healthy responses to stimulants, actions and functions that could trigger negative actions/reactions in the body.

Psychoactivity is often misunderstood. It’s often thought that you have to “feel” the effect of a pharmaceutical or other therapeutic property to induce psychoactivity, and that just isn’t the case. With hemp oil, the psychoactivity noticed could be instances like healthier responses to stress by remaining calm, better responses to pain by inhibiting inflammation and better responses to depression-like responses with happiness and calm.

Hemp Oil is Best Used in High Doses

Everyone has an individual ideal dose of hemp oil. Sure, some people’s bodies might need higher doses, but others might prefer or experience satisfaction with moderate to small doses. The thing about hemp oil is that two people can take the same exact dose and experience different levels of satisfaction. The same goes for pharmaceuticals. For some, a standard dose does just fine and others, a standard dose might cause impairment.

Using hemp oil is just as individualized as using prescribed pharmaceuticals is.
Microdosing is ideal for some people, while it might not be the right approach for others.

Hemp Oil Converts to Other Cannabinoids in the Stomach

This is another one of the laughable hemp oil misconceptions. Hemp oil cannot become another cannabinoid in the stomach. Decarboxylation can cause some cannabinoids to convert to others during heating, but the stomach digests – it does not heat cannabinoids. Every cannabinoid is different and few are capable of converting via degradation or decarboxylation (activation via heat).

Closing Thoughts

We hope you had a laugh at some of these hemp oil misconceptions. We sure did. We also hope that this information has helped clear up any questions you might have regarding things you’ve heard or stories about hemp oil that seem “off”.