CBD Industry Poised To Go From Grassroots To Big League In 2019 With Legalized Hemp

Compared to the 89 millions acres of soybean in the U.S., the hemp industry is still meager at 25,000 acres, but experts expect that will quickly change now that President Donald Trump has signed the 2018 farm bill.

That’s because after nearly a century of heavy state and federal restrictions, hemp has been removed from the list of controlled substance and reclassified as an agricultural commodity — one that a burgeoning market has its eyes on.
More than half of U.S. states already allow farmers to grow hemp, including Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. And the acreage in the U.S. increased more than 500 percent between 2015 and 2017.

In Colorado, where hemp has been legal since 2013, 36-year-old Kristen Kunau grows an acre with her husband. Come December, there’s isn’t much to see, except a mason jar of thick, dark oil that sits in the fridge.

This is CBD or cannabidiol, an oil extracted from hemp flowers. Unlike marijuana, hemp’s close relative, this contains very little THC — no more than 0.3 percent according to new federal regulations— which means ingesting hemp CBD won’t get you high.