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.

Canadian hemp producer braces for Latin American competition

Published October 14, 2019 | By Renzo Pipoli

A Canadian greenhouse vegetable producer making an expansion into hemp is bracing for Latin American competition as it expands its operations.

5 vying for Hemp Game Changer nod at first MJBizDaily Awards

Published October 11, 2019 | By Kate Lavin

Cultivator of the Year. Regional Game Changer. Community Impact. These are just some of the categories for which the editorial team of Marijuana Business Daily vetted more than 670 entries for the inaugural MJBizDaily Awards. With the list of nominees having been culled to 55 finalists, a panel of cannabis industry professionals is hard at […]

Canopy, US hemp grower head to court over dismal crop, missed payments

Published October 10, 2019 | By Renzo Pipoli

Canadian cannabis giant Canopy Growth and a Nevada-based hemp producer are suing each other in rival federal cases over a bad crop and allegations of missed payments and misspent advances. The cases center on Go Farm Hemp, a Henderson, Nevada-headquartered company that entered contracts to grow hemp in 2019 for Canopy Growth in Colorado, Kentucky, […]

Cann-Is Capital to buy all shares of CWE European Holdings

Published October 8, 2019

Cann-Is Capital Corp., a Toronto-based firm that helps cannabis businesses raise capital, has bought all outstanding equity of CWE European Holdings, a privately held Canadian holding company that sells CBD in German-speaking countries in Europe. Cann-Is Capital did not disclose a purchase amount. CWE, based in Calgary, Alberta, owns and operates six stores in Germany […]

FTC identifies CBD retailers warned about health claims

Published October 4, 2019

A federal consumer protection agency has identified four CBD manufacturers it flagged for unfair and deceptive advertising. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced warning letters were sent last month to four companies selling hemp-derived CBD products. At the time, the agency did not name the companies. A public records request posted this week made those warnings public. […]

USDA to spend $500,000 researching hemp cross-pollination

Published October 4, 2019

Researchers from Virginia Tech have been tapped to predict the trajectory of wind-dispersed hemp pollen, a major concern for outdoor growers of marijuana and flower varieties of hemp. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has devoted $500,000 to look at the path of hemp and switchgrass pollens. The goal is to predict how and where pollen […]

CBD manufacturers seek market edge touting absence of common weedkiller

Published October 2, 2019 | By Kristen Nichols

A weedkiller so common in global agriculture that it turns up in rainwater and animal tissue is giving some CBD producers a strategy to stand out in a crowded market – by advertising their CBD doesn’t contain it. Several CBD producers, including RE Botanicals and Bluebird Botanicals, are rolling out product labels promoting the absence of […]

Canadian health food association pushes back on CBD limits

Published October 1, 2019

Canada should allow hemp-derived CBD sales without a cannabis license, according to Canada’s largest trade association dedicated to natural health and organic products. The Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA) said natural-foods stores and other retailers shouldn’t need permission from Health Canada, the agency that regulates marijuana. The notice Monday came in response to one in June from […]

Early snow threatens Western hemp, sends farmers scrambling

Published September 27, 2019 | By Hemp Industry Daily staff

Hemp farmers in the Western states were frantically harvesting their crops ahead of an early-season storm threatening cold temperatures and severe wind chill, potentially dumping as much as 50 inches of snow on their fields.

DEA added to list of agencies ordered to adapt to hemp legalization

Published September 26, 2019

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is the latest agency being ordered to accommodate hemp legalization using a budget maneuver. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, announced Thursday he is championing a requirement that the DEA “identify or develop on-the-spot field testing technologies” to distinguish hemp from marijuana. The need for speedier cannabis tests has bedeviled […]

The outlook for Uruguayan hemp: Q&A with Sergio Vazquez of Uruguay’s agriculture ministry

Published September 26, 2019 | By Renzo Pipoli

While Latin American countries generally have yet to see the formation of anything close to a real hemp market, some areas will begin to see an export stream next year.

Report: CBD tops turmeric as top-selling dietary supplement, charting up 333% in natural channels

Published September 26, 2019

CBD rocketed to the best-selling herbal dietary supplement in natural sales channels last year, ousting turmeric as the No. 1 seller, according to a new report from the American Botanical Council. Sales of CBD products jumped 333% in 2018 in natural- and health-foods sales channels, notching $52.7 million in U.S. sales, the Texas-based industry group […]