A “drug bust” of legally-grown Vermont hemp mistakenly believed to be marijuana by the NYPD, 10 million marijuana plants found growing in hiding at a licensed hemp farm in California, mounting concerns from cannabis cultivators in Colorado over the threat posed to their plants by cross-pollination from hemp farms. The 2018 Farm Bill’s declassification of hemp as a Schedule 1 substance created a bit of a wild west for the crop, and this recent stream of news stories is just the latest reminder of how much is at stake if we don’t close the regulatory gaps that are creating significant problems across the country.
This fall the United States Department of Agriculture released their interim rules for hemp with the hope that they would create critical guidelines and standardization for states’ treatment of the plant. As growers and state officials voice their concerns regarding the practicality of some of the rules and states begin to submit their proposed regulations to the USDA, it’s worth looking at what the rules don’t require, and how it will affect the challenges facing law enforcement and cultivators alike.
Hemp’s similarities to marijuana (both in appearance and potential use as a consumable product containing CBD) makes regulating the plant much more complicated than typical agricultural products. If states want to support hemp farmers, make it easier for law enforcement agents to do their jobs, and ensure the safety of consumers, they need to require enhanced traceability and better visibility into the supply chain. Unfortunately, the USDA’s rules don’t quite get us there.
First, while the interstate movement of hemp is now legal under the new rules, the rules don’t create a pathway for law enforcement across the country to easily verify that the contents of a shipment are in fact legally-grown hemp. A standardized and accessible tracking system that provides consistent, secure and easily confirmable product transfer manifests would support state and local regulators and law enforcement agents with the means to quickly confirm if products being moved are appropriately represented and the intended movement and destination meets required legal and regulatory standards (Did the product originate at a licensed hemp farm? Is the product being moved to a licensed destination? Has the material been properly tested?). Enabling a mechanism for state, local and federal authorities across the nation to quickly and securely validate sourcing and types of products involved in inter-state movement is key to ensuring the smooth sale and movement of legally sourced hemp products in a national market.
At the same time, while the new rules require reports on basic cultivation information ahead of a harvest, regulators need greater insight into grow sites in order to minimize illicit activity and help farmers prevent unintentional cross-pollination. By tracking plants throughout the entire supply chain starting at the batch or lot level, regulators can ensure that any adverse events stemming from retail products can be quickly traced back to a specific targeted point of origin for appropriate action rather than utilizing large scale quarantining of an entire farm or geographic area, as we have seen recently with romaine lettuce. Using an appropriate amount of tracking would also provide near real-time continuous access to data and information on cultivation activity to ensure hemp is being legally grown in conformity with stated purposes and enable both growers and agricultural departments with deeper insight and more proactive capabilities to respond to issues that could affect broader crop bases (e.g., blights, infestations).
The USDA’s rules provide a solid starting point for states trying to manage the emerging industry, but if we want to create a sustainable regulatory structure that can solve for hemp’s unique challenges we need to address the entire supply chain.