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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.

‘The FDA is struggling’: Former US surgeon general Carmona on government’s approach to CBD

Published August 15, 2019 | By Kristen Nichols

The booming CBD industry is eagerly waiting to see if U.S. health regulators change course and start allowing cannabinoid treatments in food and dietary supplements. Many are hoping the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USDA) will condone over-the-counter CBD products while setting production and purity standards to eliminate inferior CBD products from the market. Against […]

FDA exec: Don’t expect an exception for CBD

Published August 14, 2019

CBD treatments are promising, but far more research needs to be done before federal authorities can allow them in foods and dietary supplements, according to a leader of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s new cannabinoid work group. Talking to the National Industrial Hemp Council, Lowell Schiller warned CBD producers in attendance that the FDA […]

Charlotte’s Web reports revenues buoyed by distribution deals; new CFO hired

Published August 14, 2019

Charlotte’s Web, a Boulder, Colorado-based CBD manufacturer, on Wednesday reported revenue of $25 million for the second quarter ended in June, up 45% from the same period a year ago. Profit for the quarter was $18.8 million, up 35% from the previous year. Meanwhile, the company also announced that Chief Financial Officer Richard Mohr is […]

Brownstein Hyatt cites growth of industrial hemp in formation of industry group

Published August 12, 2019

With industrial hemp and recreational/medical marijuna becoming what it calls more “mainstream,” law firm and lobbying giant Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck said it has created a new industry group to accommodate the maturing markets. The group will be co-chaired by Melissa Kuipers Blake, a shareholder in the Denver-based firm’s government relations department, and Amy Steinfeld, […]

New Jersey expands hemp production and CBD use; future for processing uncertain

Published August 12, 2019

New Jersey has expanded its hemp law to allow more cultivation and derivatives such as CBD to go in foods and cosmetics. However, state analysts say it’s unclear how big of a player New Jersey will be in the national hemp market. Signed into law Friday by Gov. Phil Murphy, the new measure replaces a […]

Canadian marijuana giant sees ‘largest’ CBD sales coming from US

Published August 8, 2019

Cronos Group, a Toronto-based marijuana company, predicts CBD customers in the United States will be the “largest contributor” to its sales over the next couple of years. But company executives cautioned investors that it’s “too early to speculate” on how big the European market for CBD will become. The comments came as Cronos released its […]

Strong CBD drug release powers GW Pharmaceuticals’ record revenue

Published August 7, 2019 | By Hemp Industry Daily staff

Strong patient interest in the only federally approved CBD product in the United States helped drugmaker GW Pharmaceuticals record $72 million in revenue last quarter. Epidiolex, a seizure control drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has seen brisk sales and new patient enrollments since the drug’s launch last November. GW Pharma (Nasdaq: GWPH) reported that […]

UK soon will sell first commercial export of high-CBD cannabis from Colombia

Published August 6, 2019 | By Alfredo Pascual

The first CBD products exported from Colombia to the United Kingdom soon will be available for sale in the U.K. and other European Union countries, Bogota-based Clever Leaves announced.

Five not-so-obvious strategies for CBD producers to tap the multibillion-dollar spa market

Published August 5, 2019 | By Kristen Nichols

The market for hemp-infused topicals has never been hotter, with big-box retailers ranging from CVS to Sephora adding CBD creams and balms – despite pushback from U.S. health authorities. Even as the national market for topicals booms, though, opportunities abound for boutique CBD manufacturers in the U.S. spa industry, where wellness executives prize craft production even […]

California marijuana company teams with water developer for desert hemp venture

Published August 1, 2019

A Southern California marijuana company is teaming with a rural water projects developer to start growing hemp in the Mojave Desert. Glass House Farms of Carpinteria, California, said it created a joint venture with water developer Cadiz Inc. to grow 60 acres of hemp starting next month in the town of Cadiz in rural San Bernardino […]

Editor’s Notebook: Why the hemp industry should heed cotton’s lessons and resist overproduction

Published July 31, 2019 | By Kristen Nichols

Hemp is worth 10 times as much as soybeans. No, 20 times. No, 100 times.

Sound too good to be true?

Ohio governor enacts hemp law opening CBD sales beyond dispensaries

Published July 30, 2019

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law a measure authorizing CBD sales and the commercial production of industrial hemp in the state. The law takes effect immediately and allows CBD to be sold outside dispensaries. CBD had been legal in Ohio but only in medical marijuana dispensaries. Highlights of the Ohio hemp law include: CBD food, […]