EMAIL: kristenn@mjbizdaily.com
PHONE: 720.643.4450

Kristen Nichols

Kristen is a Denver-based reporter for Marijuana Business Daily specializing in the hemp and CBD industries. Previously, she worked at the Associated Press for nearly 20 years. She started covering the marijuana legalization movement in 2009 – when medical stores started popping up around Denver – and wrote about the state’s first legal hemp harvest. Kristen also covered agriculture and politics in Maryland and her home state of Georgia.

US produced $824M worth of hemp on 54,200 acres last year, feds report

Published February 17, 2022

U.S. farmers grew more than a half-million acres of hemp last year worth an estimated $824 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in a first-ever national accounting of cannabis production released Thursday.

Bill allowing New York hemp farmers to grow marijuana heads to governor

Published February 17, 2022

The New York state Senate passed a bill that would provide hemp farmers a conditional license to grow, process and distribute marijuana products.

Jones Soda buys Canadian firm, raises $11M in step toward CBD drinks

Published February 15, 2022

Craft soda maker Jones Soda acquired a Canadian shell company and raised $11 million in concurrent financing as part of a move to develop cannabis-infused products.

Editor’s Notebook: Why MJ operators had exactly the wrong reaction to delta-8 THC

Published February 15, 2022 | By Kristen Nichols

Opinion: Why marijuana operators should have seen the rise of delta-8 THC as a golden opportunity to tackle red tape.

As hemp THC sales boom online and by mail, cannabis industry braces for crackdown

Published February 14, 2022 | By Kristen Nichols

The rise of delta-9 THC products derived from hemp, commonly sold online and shipped across state lines with little of the taxes or safety requirements faced by marijuana producers, has the cannabis industry bracing for tighter state and federal limits on intoxicating hemp products.

Cajun case study: How Louisiana is taking a different approach to regulating D-8

Published February 11, 2022 | By Omar Sacirbey

While many states responded to the delta-8 THC phenomenon by banning the cannabinoid, Louisiana is looking to tame it by regulating D-8 products, mandating testing and enforcing other compliance standards.

Is hemp-derived delta-8 THC causing consumer confusion?

Published February 10, 2022 | By Laura Drotleff

Consumers often don’t know the difference between CBD and delta-8 THC

Oregon seed breeder asks for federal help getting hemp money owed in Kentucky

Published February 9, 2022

An Oregon hemp seed breeder is asking a federal court in Kentucky to help it get almost $2 million it received in a dispute with AmHemp Kentucky LLC of Murray.

Higher prices and edibles focus are hallmarks of D-8 products sold in MJ dispensaries

Published February 9, 2022 | By Kate Lavin

Plant-touching companies weren’t the only businesses surprised by the sudden and explosive growth of delta-8 THC in 2020. Sales of the novel cannabinoid surprised trade associations and ancillary companies as well.

Most cannabis companies believe D-8 and D-9 can coexist, but safety is paramount

Published February 8, 2022 | By Omar Sacirbey

Most cannabis companies believe D-8 and D-9 can coexist, but safety is paramount

How the delta-8 THC industry started, and where it’s headed

Published February 7, 2022 | By Omar Sacirbey

When Harold Jarboe told his partners at Columbia River Cannabis in 2014 that he was leaving the licensed Washington state marijuana company to grow hemp in Tennessee, they thought he was crazy.

“They thought I’d lost my mind,” Jarboe recalled. And for a while, it seemed as if they were right.

Hemp extraction to mushroom extraction? Why some say the pivot is natural

Published February 4, 2022 | By Hilal Bahcetepe

Some say that hemp extractors can make an easy pivot to extracting psilocybin — but others say the equipment and processes are very different.