MJBizMag September 2020 - 12

HempNotebook | Kristen Nichols
Defund the Plant Police
A
Why hemp testing perpetuates inequality and wastes money
s the United States confronts
centuries of racism from
authorities charged with
keeping us safe, citizens are rightly
debating how far we should go to
reform police departments. Can they
be overhauled to truly protect and
serve, or must police departments
be dismantled and replaced with new
organizations to keep the peace while
respecting human rights?
There are strong opinions on both
sides. So here's an idea that won't be
nearly as controversial with the general
public: Let's defund the plant police.
Red-Tape Bonanza
I'm talking about the enormous new
bureaucracies spawned by the 2014
and 2018 U.S. Farm Bills, two wellintentioned
attempts to legalize lowTHC
cannabis known as hemp while
maintaining marijuana prohibition
through a vigorous system of testing
the cannabis to make sure it's the
" good " kind.
The problem is that this vigorous
testing system costs money-a lot
of money, and money that no state
department of agriculture has to spare.
So every state has turned to hemp
growers to foot the bill.
I get it: Why take precious tax dollars
out of schools and hospitals to create
a new plant police force to monitor the
cannabinoid levels of a bunch of plants
that frankly don't care how much THC
their flowers are producing?
It makes sense to charge hemp
growers to carry out this task rather
than taxpayers at large. I spend a
decent bit of time reviewing state plans
to conduct THC testing on hemp plants,
and every single one asks producers to
pay for it.
But there's a cost beyond the
stupidly exorbitant licensing and
permitting fees. And that cost is the
perpetuation of a racist system that,
frankly, no one wants to perpetuate.
No Poor People Allowed
In my home state of Georgia, a new
law with bipartisan support increases
the annual fees hemp processors must
pay from $10,000 per year to $50,000
annually. The measure also requires
hemp farmers to test every single
crop for THC, not take just a random
sampling-at the farmers' expense, of
course.
It's an outrage. Because this kind of
thinking doesn't just milk an industry
too new to complain. It perpetuates
generational inequality by limiting
participation to people with $50,000
sitting around. There's no payment
plan for interested entrepreneurs who
don't have five figures to burn on a new
venture.
Georgia is only one example. State
after state is piling on fees to hemp
operators to the extent that we're going
to be left with a hemp industry that's
even more full of white males than it is
now, if you can imagine such a thing.
Hemp gives us a perfect platform for
experimenting with ratcheting back
enforcement without making serious
changes to societal norms.
12 Marijuana Business Magazine | September 2020
A Way Out
So what if we ... just didn't? Fund
the testing regime, I mean. Would
lawbreakers across the nation start
growing higher-THC cannabis strains?
Sure. Would that make a big difference
to public health and safety? I think we
all know the answer.
So let's continue to experiment with
hemp. There's no long-established
profession of hemp testers to feel
insulted by the suggestion of not
funding them. No fears that unruly
high-THC hemp plants are going to bust
loose and start pillaging small towns.
Hemp gives us a perfect platform for
experimenting with ratcheting back
enforcement without making serious
changes to societal norms.
We might just discover that industry
and regulators alike are happier
without plant police.
Kristen Nichols is editor of Hemp
Industry Daily. She can be reached at
kristen.nichols@hempindustrydaily.com.
MJBizMag September 2020

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