News provided by Medical Marijuana, Inc. 09:00 ET
SAN DIEGO, April 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Medical Marijuana, Inc. (OTC: MJNA), the first publicly traded cannabis company in the United States, announced today that the Company applauds U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s first public announcement of his intention to remove industrial hemp from the Controlled Substances Act with the introduction of the Hemp Farming Act of 2018.
Previously, McConnell helped develop new federal and state legal permissions for hemp and even steered hemp into the 2014 Farm Bill. Now, according to McConnell’s public senate announcement on Thursday, April 12, the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 would remove hemp with less than 0.3 percent of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) from the controlled substances list. This would include the de-scheduling of all derivatives, extracts and seeds of hemp as long as those portions of the plant remain below the THC requirement.
“During the recent state work period, I talked to a number of farmers, manufacturers, and small business owners who expressed enthusiasm for hemp’s potential, and I was proud to stand with Kentucky’s Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles to announce the impending introduction of this bill,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in his senate speech.
The bill would also add hemp as an eligible commodity for the purposes of crop insurance. This allows farmers to access capital for cultivation and production of hemp and hemp products. For hemp research and production, the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 would make hemp research eligible for competitive grant funding under the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977.
“This bill has such widespread bipartisan support that it is not only being considered to be an amendment to the Farm Bill of 2018, but also a unique bill on its own,” said Medical Marijuana, Inc. CEO Dr. Stuart Titus. “It will take a lot of hard work to make hemp federally legal in the U.S., but we’re happy to have someone of such power and influence working to help make this possible.”
Medical Marijuana, Inc. currently produces its full spectrum hemp oil from industrial hemp grown in Europe. If made into law, this new bill could not only generate a major market opportunity for U.S. farmers to potentially source CBD oil for such products from U.S.-based hemp crops, but it could make hemp cultivation legal federally as well, making CBD oil more affordable and accessible for those in need.
Medical Marijuana, Inc. subsidiary HempMeds®, the company that sells the company’s Real Scientific Hemp Oil CBD hemp oil, was the first company to ever bring hemp-based CBD oil products to market in the U.S. in 2012 and was also the first-ever company to receive historic federal government import approvals for its CBD products in the nations of Brazil, Mexico and Paraguay.