ARTICLE
Hemp, The Elephant In The Room
It was quite evident at the UK’s first Hemp and CBD Expo in March that the industry is mostly concerned with cannabinoids (HempTank was the only stand showcasing the many other uses of hemp).
This is not surprising considering the UK’s CBD industry has grown exponentially over the past few years to become the largest in Europe. There are now approx. 1.2 million users in the UK (7 million throughout Europe) and at only 2% of the UK population, this number is set to increase dramatically over the coming years as awareness increases. Even though the US is now poised to accelerate full throttle, following the 2018 Farm Bill being passed to legalise not just the growing of hemp but also the production of CBD products across all states, the UK and Europe are in danger of being left behind as political pressure builds to try and outlaw cannabinoid extracts under the guise of European safety laws and out-dated drug scheduling. What’s worse is that we rely completely on imports. Imports from outside of the European Union are already high risk as Border Force intercept hemp related products (especially from the States). Even terpenes and hemp seed are sometimes held.
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Meanwhile, the Home Office continue to reject licence applications for anything expect the stalk and seed as they still consider the whole flowers to be dangerous narcotics; even the leaves and roots are considered Class B controlled substances if grown in the UK. Unfortunately, the Governmental view and even that of the CBD industry reflects the powerful ‘Reefer Madness’ propaganda of the 1930s which suggests that cannabis was prohibited due to the psychoactive effects of THC. We all know that this propaganda was based on a complete load of codswallop, however it seems that most of us are blind to the elephant in the room.
