Original Articles

France dropped its fleeting ban on the use of hemp flowers. Must’ve been the “big shouting” and “riots.” “We decide something, then put it in the room and wait for a while to see what happens. If there is no big shouting and no riots because most people do not understand what has been decided, … Continue reading "France Comes to Its Senses"...

It might be time to differentiate between vegan foods that are made with real food ingredients and those that are made to be as realistic to meat as possible, typically using powders. Perhaps “Vegan” for the former and “Plant-based” for the latter. Especially when restaurants may not be segregating their prep and cooking surfaces and … Continue reading "“Vegan” vs. “Plant-based”"...

Hemp varieties high in Cannabidivarin (CBDv) are now available. Here are 90 papers on PubMed mentioning CBDv:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=cannabidivarin&sort=date&size=100...

In a 1,300-year old Chinese tomb they found hempseed twice as large as usual: No doubt, as in the ‘90s I hired leading Cannabis breeders to develop a large-seeded hemp variety not unlike that, huge seeds weighing in at 17/gram. The parents were from Yunnan, China. Huge seeds meant to be shelled into HempNut brand … Continue reading "Huge Ancient Hempseed"...

CBD prevented viral replication in lung cells and people on CBD had lower Covid infection rates: Cannabidiol inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication through induction of the host ER stress and innate immune responses “The spread of SARS-CoV-2 and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need for new treatments. Here we report that cannabidiol (CBD) inhibits infection of SARS-CoV-2 … Continue reading "CBD vs Covid, Again"...

U.S.-government funded PubMed returns 88 papers for the keyword search “Cannabinoid + Covid:” See them at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Cannabinoid+Covid&sort=date&size=100...

Here’s a GoFundMe for an interesting new hemp cannabinoid-based fermented anti-aging food ingredient. Like most innovators in Canadian hemp, he had to wrestle the government to launch it. “Canterpene Bioderivative Anti-Aging TechnologyGoal: $2,000,000” See it at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/canterpene-bioderivative-antiaging-technology...

This study found CBDa and CBGa effective against the Covid virus but only in vitro. Now to test on live beings before we get too excited. Read it at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35007072/...

CBD companies should line up to help; the same Exclusionary Rule blocks them. THC vendors too, they’ll run up against this eventually too: “NPA filed a lawsuit in December of last year challenging FDA’s wrongful application of the ‘exclusionary clause’ of DSHEA regarding the dietary ingredient NAC. NPA is asking the industry and industry trade … Continue reading "NPA Sues FDA over Exclusion"...

The US could save $500,000,000 annually in prescription drug costs if medical marijuana was legal, and that’s just the Medicare Part D costs. Extrapolated to all US prescription costs not just Part D (disabled and retired), the annual savings is almost $4 billion, 1.1% of all prescription drug expenditures. With the 51-year lie of marijuana … Continue reading "Legalizing Will Save 1.1% of all Rx $"...

“For decades, Dr. Carlini’s research was not replicated, in part because so few people had access to the compound: Both the pot held at the nation’s sole government-sanctioned marijuana lab at the University of Mississippi and the illegal pot being smoked around the country had only trace CBD content. (Mr. Turner even tested several kinds … Continue reading "A Hidden Origin Story of the CBD Craze"...

We could look at Cannabis nomenclature as a 3-legged stool: chemotype, genotype, phenotype. But how to express them easily is The Art. Sativa/Indica is sooo 18th Century. Especially with 150 cannabinoids and 200 terpenes giving us 30,000 possible combinations just on chemo alone. Types 1-6 work defining by cannabinoid ratios, the chemotype. “OG x NL5” … Continue reading "Cannabis Nomenclature: 3-legged Stool?"...

From historian Chris Bennett:“Today in Poland and Lithuania, and in former times also in Russia, on Christmas Eve when it is believed that the dead visit their families, a soup made of hemp seeds, called ‘semieniatka,’ is served for the dead souls to savor. In Latvia and the Ukraine, a dish made of hemp was … Continue reading "Three Kings Day"...

Don’t be so quick to embrace marijuana taxes. There shouldn’t even be a tax: savings from non-enforcement is an order of magnitude greater. Adding taxes on top of that is double-dipping. They’re shooting themselves in the foot with high taxes; take budget from the drug squad windfall savings instead. Even a mere 0.0001% tax demands … Continue reading "Pot Taxes: Epic Fail"...

What’s the US going to do about the U.N. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (SCND) Treaty, the mother of all drug laws? I suggest do what Uruguay, Paraguay, The Netherlands, Jamaica, and Canada do, and soon Malta, Luxembourg, and Thailand will do, and what the government already did to many Native American treaties: ignore it. … Continue reading "Easy Solution For US’s SCND Problem"...

This was an ad we ran in many national consumer magazines to drive pull-through at retail, and make the product a success. In this case, Hemp Times. From 1995 through 2001 we spent $250,000 in trade and consumer ads, and PR to make it a Thing. It worked: today hemp food is hemp’s first billion … Continue reading "1999: “The Peanut Butter of the Next Millennium”"...

Want to hear the independent unvarnished truth, informed by over four decades of success in entrepreneurial business? Thousands of business professionals know who to turn to when money and reputation are on the line. Click here to find out why. Or here. Or click here to schedule a time to speak with Richard. Facebook followers … Continue reading "Consult The Hemp Consultant Your Hemp Consultant Consults"...

While today all the cheese alternatives are vegan, in the ‘80s the first ones contained casein, a milk protein. That includes my TofuRella in 1986. Although the FDA nevertheless allowed us to call it “nondairy,” we didn’t. Using casein was a critical early step in developing the cheese alternative segment, as it made for a … Continue reading "1987: “New Soy Cheese Best Yet to Hit Market”"...

A rare December tornado completely destroyed the University of Kentucky Research Farm, which performs hemp research. No one was injured at the farm...

Cannabidivarin (CBDv) is a natural medicinal hemp phytocannabinoid. It oxidizes to the rarer cannabinoids CBEv and CBNDv. Add them for fuller “full spectrum.” Here are 87 studies on PubMed mentioning it:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Cannabidivarin&sort=date&size=200 And here’s a bunch on Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&scisbd=1&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Cannabidivarin&btnG= Top image courtesy Swiss Cannabinoid...

Many don’t have a full picture of the cannabinoids and their ratios found in traditional hashish. Like me, I long assumed that they were mostly-all THC. But a 2014 study from Dr Lumir Hanus found that many of the samples from Lebanon, Morocco, and India seized by police were quite high in CBD. The Leb … Continue reading "U.N.: Hash = Hemp = Hash"...

Here’s a scene from Dave Olson’s 1997 documentary “The Hempen Road” featuring hemp pioneer John Stahl of Evanescent Press. He was planning on growing hemp for paper in Humboldt, and even installed a 12-foot fence and security lights to satisfy DEA. Local marijuana growers told him they wouldn’t let his first crop pollinate theirs because … Continue reading "John Stahl on Hemp for Paper"...

Here’s a scene from Dave Olson’s 1997 documentary “The Hempen Road” featuring hemp food pioneer Dr Jace Callaway of FINOLA talking about how he tested the crop for THC, much to the surprise of police. Filmed at the Vancouver Hemp Symposium. 1:49 Copyright 1997 Dave Olson...

These quotes are from Harry Anslinger, the man uber-racist FDR dispatched to put brown-skinned people in jail not for drugs, but for not having one certain little stamp proving they paid a tax; an economic crime. By 1937, many of today’s drug companies made hundreds of popular and efficacious medicines dispensed by pharmacists containing Cannabis … Continue reading "Revelations from Congressional Testimony in the Hearings on the Marihuana Tax Act in 1937"...

I know Herer said the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was all Harry Anslinger, but do you really think only Anslinger was behind it? A low-level railroad cop was able to single-handedly marshall the federal government to wage a war on Blacks and Mexicans, getting Congress to go along and the White House what, just … Continue reading "Anslinger’s Super Racist Boss: FDR"...

Here is a clip from the 1997 documentary “The Hempen Road” by Dave Olson, featuring Eric Zima (Zima Foods) and Todd Dalotto (Hungry Bear). In 1997, the hempseed food industry was in its quaint infancy. “Hippies making food in their kitchens” would not be an uncharitable description for the most part. None of these were … Continue reading "The State of Hemp Foods in 1997"...

Hempcrete is so awesome it doesn’t even need hemp! Or as I call it, “Biocrete.” Most any ag waste will do, including virgin Kenaf (“K-hemp”) if you’re in the sub- or tropics where low-THC Cannabis doesn’t perform as well. Millions of tons of ag wastes are burned every year, while hemp is still the rarest … Continue reading "“Biocrete” FTW"...

For millennia people have been eating hempseed, and even now a billion people eat it weekly (China). A vegan source of complete protein and omega-3, it tastes great raw...

From Cannabis Evolution and Ethnobotany by Clarke and Merlin: “Biotechnology in the form of genetic modification has also reached Cannabis. An Irish research group successfully transferred genes for grey mold resistance to an industrial hemp variety (Clarke and Watson 2007). Grey mold is one of the leading pests of Cannabis, causing crop loss and contaminating … Continue reading "GMO Hemp"...

In America, the fastest way to introduce something new and spur diffusion and acceptance is through that one-eyed monster, TV. To normalize Cannabis a generation ago, the easiest path was by using marijuana’s red-haired stepchild, hemp. Ironically, hemp has proven to be the sharp point of the Cannabis legalization spear. And especially food, as it … Continue reading "1999: Hemp Foods on National TV x5"...