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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.

Hemp-based wood startup in Kentucky begins production amid trade dispute

Published August 28, 2019

A Kentucky company planning to develop hemp-derived wood products has begun production even as it appeals a 25% tariff on some equipment from China. Fibonacci opened its $5.8 million facility in Murray, Kentucky, this week. The company, which plans to employ 25 people making hemp-based wood products such as flooring and furniture components, is appealing a tariff […]

Editor’s Notebook: Will smokable hemp end up burning the industry?

Published August 28, 2019 | By Kristen Nichols

Smokable hemp has taken hold with consumers.

The unlikely trend has given hemp producers new market opportunities – and a new set of legal headaches.

Much of Hawaii hemp crop destroyed as farmers search for viable cultivars

Published August 27, 2019

More than 50% of Hawaii’s 2019 hemp crop had to be destroyed because of elevated THC levels, a problem that state agriculture officials attribute to a lack of cultivars suited to a tropical climate. Eighteen crops were destroyed and another four hemp crops exceeded legal THC limits but were granted waivers because the THC was […]

Controversial former US attorney general joins CBD firm as legal adviser

Published August 27, 2019 | By Matt Lamers

Toronto-based CBD company Alternate Health has tapped the former highest-ranking law enforcement officer in the U.S. to serve as outside counsel, officials announced Tuesday.

DEA affirms hemp’s new status, sends notice that plant is legal

Published August 26, 2019

More than six months after hemp was made legal in the United States, federal drug authorities have updated their guidance to remind law enforcement that hemp is no longer a controlled substance. A notice posted Monday by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) cited the 2018 Farm Bill in noting that “certain forms of cannabis […]

Ongoing hemp-transport questions trigger Minnesota warning

Published August 23, 2019 | By Kristen Nichols

A Minnesota hemp industry group is warning manufacturers not to order hemp biomass from other states in the wake of a South Dakota drug arrest of a deliveryman bringing plants from Colorado to Minnesota for extraction. The Minnesota warning comes as a federal appeals court prepares to hear arguments next week over hemp transportation. “The ability […]

MJBizDaily’s Investor Intelligence launches comp tables for hemp, CBD investors

Published August 21, 2019 | By Mike Regan and Craig Behnke

This week, MJBizDaily’s Investor Intelligence introduces a new comp table that includes exclusive data on hemp and CBD companies. As an allocator of capital judging multiple opportunities for your marginal dollar, you must be able to: Identify the relevant investment opportunities. Assess the current size and value of public players. Determine the valuation multiple applied […]

Smokable hemp ban step closer to adoption in North Carolina

Published August 21, 2019

North Carolina lawmakers are moving closer to banning smokable hemp starting late next year. An agricultural bill that includes a ban on selling smokable hemp products, beginning in December 2020, passed in the state House Wednesday, WRAL-TV reported. The measure has already passed the North Carolina Senate, though changes in the bill mean the Senate […]

Credit union regulator reminds banks hemp businesses can be served – with caution

Published August 20, 2019

Hemp businesses should have access to banking services, a top banking regulator reiterated this week amid ongoing complaints about banking and credit challenges in the newly legal industry. The National Credit Union Association (NCUA), an independent federal agency that oversees and insures banking deposits for more than 100 million U.S. account holders, released a statement Monday […]

North Dakota retailer prevails in drug case over selling CBD vapes

Published August 19, 2019

A vape shop owner in North Dakota who sells CBD has succeeded in getting criminal drug charges against him dismissed after a two-year battle that went to the state’s Supreme Court. The retailer, Falesteni A. Abu Hamda, was charged with seven drug crimes in 2017, when police seized CBD vape pens and gummy bears from two of his Tobacco Depot shops. […]

USDA: National THC test for hemp ‘as challenging as you think it is’

Published August 19, 2019 | By Hemp Industry Daily staff

Federal agriculture authorities are struggling to craft a nationwide THC testing standard so that state and local regulators can tell hemp from marijuana, complicating the release of standardized production rules, according to an official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). William Richmond, head of the Specialty Crops Program in the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, […]

CBD makers RE Botanicals, Palmetto Harmony merge

Published August 19, 2019

CBD manufacturers in the Southeast and Mountain West are merging to increase market penetration and align production. RE Botanicals of Boulder, Colorado, and Palmetto Harmony of Conway, South Carolina, announced the merger Monday. The new company is called RE Botanicals, though Palmetto Harmony will remain a brand name of CBD capsules, tinctures, topicals, vape oils […]