XPost: alt.atheism, sac.politics, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: alt.society.liberalism   
   From: dirtbag@gavinnewsom.turds   
      
   Gov. Gavin Newsom dropped a bomb on California's hemp industry last year   
   when he unilaterally banned selling the drug in his state, despite it   
   being legal at the federal level. Sales have slowed following his   
   emergency order, yet the ban has done little to dissuade California's   
   pot companies from jumping into the hemp industry.   
      
   America's hemp industry has boomed since Congress legalized the category   
   of cannabis in 2018. Hemp has historically been used to describe   
   cannabis used for non-drug purposes, like food and clothing, but   
   Congress wrote a broad definition of hemp that has allowed intoxicating   
   drugs to be sold as hemp everywhere from gas stations to online   
   retailers.   
      
   Newsom issued an emergency order banning the drug's sale last September,   
   calling hemp companies "drug peddlers" who "target our children with   
   dangerous and unregulated hemp products." Yet in just the past month,   
   some of the state's biggest names in legal weed have started exporting   
   hemp products, signaling that California's troubled legal cannabis   
   industry is increasingly less attractive than opportunities outside of   
   the state.   
      
   Stiiizy, the state's largest retailer, launched an intoxicating hemp   
   drink line in January, which it said offered customers "a perfect blend   
   of taste and relaxation." Celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Seth Rogen   
   have also launched their own lines of hemp products in recent months.   
      
   Kyle Kazan, the CEO and co-founder of Glass House Brands, one of the   
   state's largest cannabis companies, said during a November earnings call   
   that the hemp market "tantalized" Glass House because it would enable   
   them to sell Glass House products in other states. The company is   
   currently growing a pilot batch of hemp and could eventually grow as   
   much as 60 acres of hemp at its Southern California facilities,   
   according to Glass House President Graham Farrar.   
      
   "The upsides are enormous: It's a bigger market, we can accept credit   
   cards, we can ship through the USPS and run online advertising. In other   
   words, we can be a normal business," Farrar recently told SFGATE.   
      
   None of these products can legally be sold within California following   
   Newsom's September ban, though that could change in March when the   
   six-month emergency rule expires. Newsom's office did not return   
   repeated SFGATE requests for comment regarding whether the governor   
   plans to extend the ban after it expires and whether he is concerned   
   that legal California cannabis companies are investing in hemp.   
      
   Matt Karnes, a cannabis analyst and founder of GreenWave Advisors, said   
   investors and businesses are more attracted to hemp because it's an   
   interstate market that lacks the sky-high taxes and onerous regulations   
   that limit marijuana.   
      
   "California businesses see a massive opportunity because the market size   
   includes the entire country (and perhaps other countries)," Karnes said   
   in an email to SFGATE.   
      
   Farrar said the same: His company has no problem with California banning   
   hemp products from being sold within the state, because Glass House has   
   its own chain of retail stores where it can sell legal cannabis to   
   Californians. Instead, he sees hemp exports as "an opportunity to help   
   everyone" in the state's pot industry by allowing companies to sell   
   cannabis to more customers, as long as Newsom doesn't shut down the   
   growing hemp industry even further.   
      
   "All California needs to do is get out of the way, and they can save the   
   California cannabis farmer by just not being more restrictive than other   
   states," Farrar said.   
      
   https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/newsom-hemp-ban-calif-pot-compani   
   es-20049908.php   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)