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At a National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) meeting in Arlington, Virginia, Greg Ibach (Under Secretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)) told members that USDA and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have reached an agreement to remove the requirement for hemp farmers to have their crops tested in DEA-registered laboratories for one year. The DEA requirement was included in the interim final rule for domestic hemp production, released Oct. 31. (Watch his statement.) There are 47 laboratories currently registered with the DEA. Many states do not have a registered laboratory, therefore requiring state, tribal and federal law enforcement agents responsible for testing hemp crops to send samples out of state within a tight, 15-day testing window. William Richmond, director of the USDA’s Domestic Hemp Production program, told farmers at […]

The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) has adopted revised rules for the Texas Hemp Program. TDA has included their summary of public comment with the agency’s responses expounding on their reasoning as to why comments were addressed with a change, clarified or maintained. These revised rules will go into effect on March 11th. It is anticipated that online licensing applications for farmers will be available shortly afterwards, with some reporting the start date as March 16th. Read the full summary and updated rules here. Reminder: Join two preeminent doctors in cannabis research for a discussion about medical cannabis, their research findings and upcoming research projects. After the presentation, there will be a significant amount of time for a Q&A session for attendees to participate in. Tickets […]

Starting tomorrow, farmers will be able to submit applications to grow hemp to the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA). The applications are available online or at the five regional offices. TDA Commissioner Sid Miller posted a video about what to expect for the application process. The Agriculture Committees in both the Texas House and Texas Senate plan to hold interim charges regarding the rollout of the Texas Hemp Program. However, the Texas Legislature recently said, “In light of recent concern for the public’s health due to the CoronaVirus and to ensure the greatest amount of participation in policy issues to be studied by the Committee this interim, these charges will be taken up at a later date.” Stay tuned for more information. The US Food and […]

The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has released the newest iteration of their proposed rules for consumable hemp products. They are asking for formal comments on these rules be submitted by the 6/8/20 deadline. It is expected that final rules will take effect in July with the earliest possible date of adoption being early June. We suggest that you read the proposed rules. Then you can submit any thoughtful feedback you have to DSHS by emailing [email protected]. (Learn more about formal comments.) A few things of note from the proposed rules: The manufacture, processing, distribution, or retail sale of consumable hemp products for smoking is prohibited. Requires consumable hemp products license before engaging in manufacture, processing or distributing consumable hemp and hemp derived products. […]