Waiting for the other shoe to drop...
Dateline 3-1-23
The weather is Sunny and continues to be unseasonably warm in Middle Tennessee. These unusual conditions have enticed almost any plant that can to bloom and as a result, there is a plethora of pollen that has zeroed in on The Old Hemp Farmer and as a result, yours truly, is suffering a King Hell episode of Hay Fever. So as therapy, The Old Hemp Farmer is enjoying a cup of organic Indonesian, nibbling on some Cacao fortified with Tennessee homegrown Cannabis extract, while listening to U2 (don’t ask I don’t understand it myself) while contemplating the events of the last 24 hours. You see, yesterday, here in the vain glorious state of Tennessee, the bill that would have decriminalized possession of Marijuana down to a $25.00 fine, got treated like a Russian tank in the Ukraine. For those folks that held out the possibility of Recreational or Medical Cannabis, this was a cold shot of reality. So now, the Cannabis professionals in this neck of the woods are waiting with anticipation for the other shoe to drop. That other “shoe” is the bill HB0403/SBO378 which regulates the production and sale of hemp-derived cannabinoids, including products known as delta-8 and delta-10 and Amends TCA Title (not sure of what that is but it sounds very serious) which while trying not sound too melodramatic is a little bill that could radically change the way that people that produce and sell Cannabis derived D8 THC and D9 THC products in the state of Tennessee. Last year, a very similar bill was up for consideration and after dithering on both sides of this Cannabis legislation, they simply “Ran out the Clock” and settled for a tie. Neither side had really thought out the ramifications for the nascent Tennessee "Hemp" Industry. The banning of THCa, THC Delta 8 and THC Delta 9 would take away the most profitable part of the “Hemp” industry and quite simply a lot of companies would fold. Last year, it was pointed out to the legislators that millions upon millions were raked in by the state of Tennessee on the sales of Cannabis products even without an Excise Tax, that stopped everyone in their tracks, so they declared victory and went home.
Well, this very same bill has returned to the limelight and so far it seems that no one in the State House has any gusto to the tackle the subject again this year. In the House, this bill was assigned to a Criminal Justice sub committee, where it has languished for a month, meanwhile in the Senate they have deferred any real action for six weeks. The end of the current legislative session is the second week of May, will they try to run out the clock again, stranger things than that have happened in Cannabis? The Old Hemp Farmer’s Wife pointed out that our life, which started in “Rec” is more bizarre in “Hemp”. Yup, Marijuana might be the Wild West but Hemp is "Mad Max". 10 years after the implementation of legal Cannabis, who would thought Recreational Cannabis would be more mature and orderly than “Hemp”? One way or the other the next couple of weeks will be interesting. After 7 years, Tennessee homegrown has had to change its profit model a few times, so what’s one more time? In the world of Cannabis derived Cannabinoids, Lee Crabtree and I have learned to roll with it. Anyway as always, Hemp Dawgs and Hemp Puppies keep one eye on the weather and the other eye on the market.
Visit our Tennessee Homegrown web site to try our great products: https://www.tnhomegrown.com
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Our Podcast - Full Contact Cannabis: https://fullcontactcannabis.podbean.com
The Wife's web site: https://www.theoldhempfarmerswife.com