We previously covered the situation of Canadian hemp farmers who had delays in getting a proper license from Health Canada. According to a new story from Mike Hager at the Globe and Mail, most of the hemp farmers’ crops are rotting away in the fields, even though they can definitely be used to make medicine.
Currently, hemp farmers are allowed to sell only seeds and fibres, but this is something that the hemp trade association is encouraging Health Canada to change. Farmers harvest hundreds of thousands of tons of hemp each year, but after the seeds and fibres are taken out, the rest of the plant is simply left to decompose, leaving valuable CBD potential behind. Existing Health Canada regulations state that hemp plants must be low in THC as well as CBD, and that only LPs can produce CBD oil legally.
Even though the cannabis market in general is much larger in the US, Canada is actually the largest exporter of hemp in the world. One hemp startup is anxious to have federal approval to allow full use of the hemp plant. Phivida Organics Inc president John-David Belfontaine says that “We’d love to be able to offer this to Canadian families as a Canadian company.”
The cannabis community, and especially the farmers, are hoping to see the hemp laws relaxed as addition to cannabis legalization which has been promised to be introduced by next spring.