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Hemp:
HEMP IN LEGISLATIVE LIMBO
The Oregon Industrial Hemp Farmers
Association hopes the regulatory “gray
zone’’ to which hemp-derived extracts
have been consigned at the federal level
could be resolved this year. That assumes
Congress decides to act. Like most
non-coronavirus items before legislators,
federal regulation of extracts derived from
hemp stalled in 2021. However, a number
of bills already introduced in Congress this
year would regulate CBD use in dietary
supplements and its inclusion in food and
beverages. They are gaining support to be
heard in relevant committees.
Change is far from certain, and in any case,
CBD prices have for the present crashed.
While CBD is on the ropes, McCormmach’s
equine hemp seed oil business remains
profitable. Hemp made a comeback once.
It might do so again.
— John Tillman
Continued from Page 19
before they had a chance to flourish. The
hemp market shifted. While some farms
managed to survive the rollercoaster expe-
rience, many decided the risk was too great.
McCormmach joined the hemp industry
in 2018.
“I’ve never been so tired in my life as I
was planting nearly 20 acres by hand,” she
said. “Some days were spent with mud to
our elbows chasing water leaks and gophers,
some hoeing weeds, some chasing flyaway
plastic. ... and then there were the evenings
we could just stroll through our fields enjoy-
ing the view. I loved every minute of it.”
Now her cold-pressed hemp seed oil has
found favor with customers, especially as a
feed additive for high performance horses.
Cannabidiol is a phytocannabinoid, dis-
covered in 1940. “Phyto-” means derived
from a plant. CBD is one of 113 identified
cannabinoids in cannabis plants, along with
psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC,
and accounts for up to 40% of the extract.
Clinical research on CBD has included stud-
ies related to anxiety, cognition, movement
disorders and pain.
Cannabidiol can be taken internally in
multiple ways, including by inhaling can-
nabis smoke or vapor, by mouth and as an
aerosol spray into the cheek. It may be sup-
plied as oil containing only CBD as the
active ingredient (excluding THC or ter-
penes), CBD-dominant hemp extract oil,
capsules, dried cannabis, or prescription liq-
uid solution.
CBD does not have the same psychoac-
tive effects as THC, and may change the
effects of THC on the body if both are pres-
ent. Research into the mechanisms of action
for its therapeutic biological effects has
advanced in the past decade.
rope and thread for sewing sacks, making
canvas, repairing seine nets on his Potomac
River fisheries and possibly clothing his
slaves. Thomas Jefferson also took an inter-
est in growing hemp as a cash crop.
After 12 years of research, Henry Ford
in 1941 produced a prototype car fueled by
hemp oil, other vegetable oils and ethanol.
Its panels were made 70% from cellulose
fiber and plastic composite. He hoped even-
tually to “grow automobiles from the soil.”
McCormmach lamented the association
hemp has with its cousin, marijuana. Hemp,
she said, has had a long road to being under-
stood and appreciated.
Despite discovery of the highly beneficial
CBD, it would be another 48 years, to 1988
and the discovery of the mammalian endo-
cannabinoid system, a molecular signaling
system within the body that is involved in
regulating a broad range of biological func-
tions, she explained.
“In layman’s terms, the ECS is built in at
our time of creation,” she said. “Its purpose
is to recognize, receive and employ endo-
cannabinoids where the body needs them in
an effort to create homeostasis.”
Fast forward another four years to 1992
when a study by Czech analytical chemist
Lumir Hanus and American pharmacologist
William Devane isolated the first endocan-
nabinoid in the human brain. They named it
“anandamide” from a Sanskrit word mean-
ing “joy” or “bliss.”
History of Hemp
During the Age of Sail in the 18th and
19th centuries, hemp made the best rope for
ship cordage, so the material was vital for
the fledgling U.S. Navy. But in 2020, the
Navy banned hemp shampoo, lotions and
other cannabidiol products.
In the 1760s, when the price of tobacco
plummeted, George Washington considered
growing hemp to diversify his Mount Ver-
non plantation. While he ultimately decided
to focus on wheat, he did grow hemp for
domestic use. He turned the plant fibers into
East Oregonian, File
Rebecca McCormmach of Pendleton demonstrates the viscosity of her CBD, or cannabidiol, oil.
See Hemp, Page 21