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.


Sessions’ marijuana antagonism spooks hemp industry, but some see silver lining

Attorney General Jeff Sessions didn’t have hemp in mind when he repealed Obama-era protections for state-legal marijuana businesses. But his Jan. 4 announcement sent shock waves into the hemp industry, too, leaving entrepreneurs scrambling to reassure skittish investors. It’s been a rocky couple of weeks for hemp entrepreneurs. That’s despite the fact that hemp’s legal […]

Read More

CBD confusion mounts in Iowa as police seize goods but don’t always test for THC

Iowa police who’ve been seizing CBD products off store shelves have in some cases not been testing them to see if they contain illegal THC, adding to the confusion surrounding cannabidiol’s legal status in the state. Authorities have seized oils, lotions and candies containing CBD in at least two jurisdictions, the Des Moines Register reported. Some […]

Read More

Congress members defend CBD, blast DEA’s hemp decision

In a bold show of support for the hemp industry and CBD, 28 members of Congress are asking a federal appeals court to reject the Drug Enforcement Administration’s argument that cannabidiol is a Schedule 1 drug. The Congress members filed the brief Thursday in conjunction with a pending lawsuit against the DEA. The 9th Circuit Court […]

Read More

Colorado hemp producer leaving for Arkansas’ new market

A hemp grower and CBD manufacturer in Denver is shifting operations to Arkansas, which will allow hemp cultivation and processing for the first time this year. Tree of Life Seeds is owned by Arkansas natives who said they set up shop in Colorado in 2015 to learn the ins and outs of the hemp industry. […]

Read More

$3.2 million hemp processing plant in New York gets state funding

A new $3.2 million facility near Binghamton, New York, is the first in the United States to receive some form of government assistance to promote the processing of hemp. The hemp processing plant, an unnamed project slated to open later this year, is receiving $650,000 from the state, Binghamton TV station WIVT reported. It is the […]

Read More

Indiana apologizes to 50 businesses cited for selling CBD

Indiana authorities are apologizing to about 50 businesses after regulators erroneously cited them for selling illegal CBD products. The letters were sent despite assurances by state officials that the store owners wouldn’t be penalized until CBD’s legal status is settled. Indiana’s Alcohol and Tobacco Commission sent the citation letters just before Christmas, WTHR-TV reported. The letters […]

Read More

New Mexico hemp industry blocked again in court ruling

New Mexico’s hemp industry is on hold – again – after the state Supreme Court put the brakes on two bills setting up hemp production. The 3-2 decision doesn’t mean New Mexico’s hemp program is permanently blocked, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. Instead, the justices ruled that two hemp bills vetoed last year […]

Read More

Canadian hemp company inks California distribution deal

A Canadian hemp company clinched a California distribution deal that will see its CBD-infused foods and waters on shelves in 550 dispensaries. Phivida Holdings of Vancouver, British Columbia, said it struck the agreement Wednesday with Green Reef Distribution, a company in Santa Monica, California, that distributes cannabis products. The Green Reef deal gives Phivida its first […]

Read More

Utah launches CBD probe, but some retailers unfazed

CBD chaos has spread to Utah, where state authorities have launched an investigation of the nascent cannabidiol industry even as business owners are risking expansion into the hot market. The confusion started in late December, when the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing seized about $400 worth of CBD products from an antiques store […]

Read More

Water access poses big risk for many hemp growers in 2018

Confusion at the federal level about water is causing a huge dilemma for hemp producers: Licensing deadlines are fast approaching in many states, but farmers don’t know if they’ll be able to irrigate their crops. That’s because the nation’s largest wholesale supplier of water – the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation – won’t allow its water to […]

Read More