California Governor Jerry Brown Signs Landmark Hemp Legislation — SB 1409
With Federal Legislation poised to legalize hemp federally and Governor Brown signing landmark legislation allowing hemp to be cultivated for the first time in California starting in 2019, Randy’s Club is proud to announce that, along with Orthogonal Thinker, it plans to cultivate hemp in 2019 for exclusive use in Randy’s Remedy products. By owning the farm and controlling the quality of the ingredients, we at Randy’s Club look forward to being able to offering the highest quality, scientifically formulated products made with 100% organically grown hemp.
And so we celebrates the passage of SB 1409 in California, which legalizes hemp farming in California. This is a major victory for the hemp industry! Governor Brown signed Vote Hemp sponsored legislation Sunday, September 30, 2018, and the law will go into effect January 1, 2019, finally allowing California farmers to enter the rapidly growing hemp industry on a wide scale.
To read the full bill, please visit:
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB1409.
SB 1409 brings California’s hemp laws up to date by adding pilot program status to the California Department of Food and Agriculture registration program in conformance with federal requirements. In addition, SB 1409 removes outdated state statute provisions that conflicted with the expanded definition of hemp that includes extracts and derivatives from the non-psychoactive flowers and leaves. This bill allows California farmers to grow industrial hemp and to produce hemp seed, oil, fiber and extract for commercial and industrial use.
Currently at the federal level, the Hemp Farming Act (S. 2667) has been included in the Senate version of the 2018 Farm Bill that is now being negotiated in conference committee. It is poised to become law in 2018, with the passage of the “must pass” Farm Bill. When passed, this bill would place federal regulatory authority of hemp solely with USDA and require State Departments of Agriculture to file their hemp program plans with USDA but would allow States to regulate hemp cultivation per their State specific programs.
In addition to defining hemp as “cannabis that contains no more than 0.3% THC by dry weight”, the bill asserts a ‘whole plant’ definition of hemp, including plant extracts; and would remove roadblocks to the rapidly growing hemp industry in the U.S., notably by authorizing and encouraging access to federal research funding for hemp and removing restrictions on banking, water rights, and other regulatory roadblocks that the hemp industry currently faces. The bill would also explicitly authorize crop insurance for hemp.
The full text of the Senate version of the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 may be found here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/2667
To date, forty states have defined industrial hemp as distinct and removed barriers to its production. These states include: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming. These states are able to take immediate advantage of the industrial hemp research and pilot program provision, Section 7606 of the Farm Bill.
Today we are proud to celebrate the addition of California to an ever expanding list of states that are finally growing hemp again.
