A recent Green Market Report newsletter brings us news that it’s still a rough road ahead for cannabis businesses. Take the story out of Illinois where last year weed sales were over $2 billion. Nevertheless dispensaries are losing business as unhappy cannabis consumers, frustrated with the quality and price, go back to buying their weed from unlicensed street dealers. Data from the International Cannabis Policy Study estimated that today nearly 36% of the Illinois cannabis market has drifted back to illegal sources. And there’s other problems as well. In fiscal year 2024 despite support in every legalization poll in the U.S., the Illinois State Police seized approximately 12 tons of what they call “illicit” cannabis valued at $63.7 million. But there’s some good news for cannabis farmers and investors who are starting to realize that the potential market for hemp-based building materials of all kinds is another potential gold mine and could turn out to be even bigger than the recreational and medicinal markets. To get a better understanding of what exactly is going on we turned to Mike Robinson, founder of Global Cannabinoid Research Center/Nanobles and widely considered to be one of the top experts in the world on how our bodies work with cannabinoids and how plant-based medicines impact our health.
Here’s what Mike has to say:
“The market for semi-synthetic cannabinoids that come from hemp has been out of control for years. Many different analogs of THC have been developed with no safety studies or stability testing. Not even a single rat has died in an effort to make sure these things are okay for people to use. The purpose of safety studies is to ensure what people are using is safe enough to not cause injury or harm. Many will disagree and argue that THC cannabis has not undergone any safety studies, but this is false. Synthetic Marinol has been a pharmaceutical for 30 years. Same with Sativex created by GW Pharmaceuticals and Bayer that’s been on the open market for quite some time. Sativex launched in the European Union in 2011 prescribed as a 1:1 THC:CBD.”
“The issue goes far beyond whether or not extracts are safe. Once people started having problems from ongoing use of D8, D9, THC-O, THCP, and a myriad of other analogs, they wanted the THC back. Some in the hemp industry responded by making pretty clean extracts, arguing the Farm Bill allowed it, and to this day still sell them. Others took it a step further and started growing any THC seed they could find and kept the plants from being more than .3 THC itself. These people argued that the Farm Bill permitted THCa Cannabis. Appellate court decisions are only reason this is continuing. but as the days go by, many in the industry are voicing concerns over the lack of regulation for the thousands of pounds of THCa Cannabis sold daily labeled “hemp.”
“My own position is since there is no direction from the government the hemp industry should be growing what it sells and have a “happy hempy day” just as the THC cannabis industry does under state laws that have existed for decades as well as the newer ones. There are many who grow ‘Hemp THCa’ that do not have a USDA Farm Bill license for hemp, so they have no oversight at all. The entire ‘semi-synthetic’ and hemp THCa debate will eventually come to an end and nobody knows exactly how the dominoes will tumble. It’s highly unlikely a Farm Bill would allow THCa flower to be sold while the Federal Government looks at tax revenue from rescheduling. And I don’t think the crowd hoping for a Farm Bill that “frees the weed” will be satisfied in the end. Policies concerning hemp should have been in the initial Farm Bill. In hindsight, if everyone had listened to Jack Herer, things would have been different. He was very outspoken about his opposition to a new hemp industry when so many people were still in jail for cannabis offenses. He was profoundly angry about the men in suits taking over the industry, selling products and making money while POWs of the legacy cannabis world were still in jail like Herer’s good friend OG Eddy Lepp.”
“But one thing all of us in this industry must accept is that hemp has the potential to be a massive market compared to cannabis that’s grown and sold for recreational or medicinal use. Hemp has the potential for use in scores of building products. The list is so long it’s overwhelming. And remember Jack Herer was a strong believer that we can lessen the climate crisis and save the world with hemp.”