CBD continues to be a gamechanger. The applications of this cannabinoid, which can be made from either cannabis or hemp, keep growing—as does its popularity. Let’s take a look at what’s been going on with CBD lately.
I never thought I’d be typing the words “Mitch McConnell did the right thing,” but here we are. The senate majority leader from Kentucky announced that when he returns to the Senate this month, he plans to introduce the 2018 Hemp Farming Act, which will remove hemp from the list of controlled substances, and legalize it as an agricultural commodity. (This is actually the second time McConnell has done right by hemp; in 2014 he supported a pilot hemp farming program in a farm bill.)
At a press conference with Kentucky’s agriculture commissioner, Ryan Quarles, McConnell stated, “We all are so optimistic that industrial hemp can become sometime in the future what tobacco was in Kentucky’s past.” (Well, except for the slavery that was used to harvest that tobacco for decades, and the untold cases of cancer, heart and lung disease, and all the other fun health issues which tobacco has going for it.)
McConnell’s bill, which has bipartisan support, “will also give hemp researchers the chance to apply for competitive federal grants from the US Department of Agriculture—allowing them to continue their impressive work with the support of federal research dollars.” Federal support of hemp production and research is great and all, but don’t think for a second that any of that support will go toward anything smokeable, as McConnell says his bill will help in “recognizing in federal statute the difference between hemp and its illicit cousin.”
