U.S. health authorities are signing off on human trials of CBD to treat opioid addiction.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the green light this week to Ananda Scientific to start human testing of its CBD drug Nantheia ATL5, the company announced.

The trials will be run out of UCLA and are funded by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The federal clearance for CBD opioid-addiction research “further re-enforces our vision of developing CBD as a therapeutic for a number of key indications.” Ananda Scientific CEO Sohail R. Zaidi said in a statement.

The clearance comes two years after the FDA issued a warning letter to Massachusetts-based Curaleaf for marketing its CBD product’s potential to treat opioid addiction. Curaleaf scrubbed its website, though national drugstore chain CVS Health dropped some Curaleaf products anyway.

Ananda Scientific is privately held and has offices in Los Angeles and Greenwood Village, Colorado. A company spokesman reached by Hemp Industry Daily did not immediately say where the CBD comes from or if it is naturally derived or synthetic.

The only plant-derived cannabinoid medicine approved for human use in the United States remains Epidiolex, a CBD drug that treats rare forms of epilepsy and is owned by Ireland’s Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

Thailand’s Health Ministry recent removal of marijuana from the country’s list of controlled drugs is opening business opportunities only for low-THC hemp operators for now, because the country has retained a cap on allowable THC.

The nation of almost 70 million plans to limit products above 0.3% THC to highly regulated medical sales channels, experts say.

One North American business that isn’t waiting to capitalize on opportunities in Thailand is Las Vegas-based Audacious Brands.

Earlier this month, Audacious entered the Thai market via a strategic partnership with Golden Triangle Health.

Marc Lakmaaker, senior vice president at Audacious, said the companies plan to sell isolate and white label products, as well as developing its own brands, leveraging GTH’s broad distribution networks.

GTH is setting up a retail franchise under the name Hemp House, and plans significant expansion this year.

“Longer term, we intend to get into the medical THC business by establishing cultivation in Thailand,” he said.

“For now, the products will be sold to the government, but it is anticipated that in the coming two years or so, recreational use will be permitted also. We will then convert the Hemp House stores into dispensary style outlets, as well as use our network in the country to secure broad distribution.”

By removing cannabis from the country’s list of controlled drugs, Thailand is also allowing home cultivation for noncommercial use.

When it comes to commercial cannabis, the changes benefit mostly health and beauty cannabis companies, said Chaiwat Sowcharoensuk, an analyst at Bangkok-based Krungsri Research.

“Producers of soaps, beauty products and cosmetics … will likely be the ones to benefit the most,” Sowcharoensuk told Hemp Today.

Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies has approved a bill to allow regulated marijuana and hemp industries. But the pending law still has hurdles to overcome and it could be years before a flourishing industry emerges.

Lawmakers in Mexico’s lower house voted largely in support of the bill, with 316 votes in favor and 129 against. There were 23 abstentions.

Next, the Senate needs to review and approve the bill’s revisions before it heads to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for his signature.

After the law is enacted, Mexico will join Canada and Uruguay as the only countries to legalize an adult-use marijuana industry.

However, the scope of the industry and available business opportunities will be largely carved out by the regulations in support of the law.

Those regulations, yet to be developed, will limit opportunities in some cases and open the door to others.

That could have unforeseen implications for businesses and investors.

The Senate approved its version of the legalization bill in November.

Mexico’s  Supreme Court earlier ruled that the absolute prohibition of recreational marijuana was unconstitutional, setting in motion the process to establish a formal law.

Read more about the Mexico vote at Marijuana Business Daily.

No part of the global economy has escaped the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than 2.5 million lives around the world and sickened countless more.

But few industries were in the kind of infancy the hemp industry was in when the World Health Organization declared the virus a global pandemic on March 11, 2020.

The resulting lockdowns, travel bans, economic collapse and distancing requirements hit just as many farmers were about to plant their first-ever legal hemp crops. Hemp acreage plummeted.

Nascent extractors and hemp processors saw equipment delayed by manufacturing shutdowns. Those that managed to find equipment couldn’t open for business because of mandatory stay-at-home orders.

And while many marijuana retailers were deemed “essential” businesses, depending on the state, hemp-specific retailers were generally closed.

CBD brands that had scrambled to get on shelves of mass-market retailers such as department stores had to immediately pivot to online-only sales.

Market analysts at the Brightfield Group, a Chicago-based data research firm, declared 2020 an “extinction event” for CBD brands, with 50% or more of an estimated 3,000 brands closing.

But the hemp industry didn’t fold up shop because of the challenges. Some companies successfully adapted business plans; others made new ones to adapt.

Hemp Industry Daily caught up (virtually, natch) with some hemp entrepreneurs to reflect on how the industry has reacted to the pandemic and get their predictions for what’s next.

Time to focus

The shutdowns and disease challenged all businesses, of course.

But some hemp entrepreneurs say the unexpected halt to business gave them time to breathe and refine business plans in a go-go young industry.

“It gave me an opportunity to pause,” said Larisa Bolivar, founder and CEO of Colorado-based Bolivar Hemp Co.

She developed a cosmetics line, bought property in Oklahoma to start a new cultivation site and even finished a book she had been working on for years.

“We were all feeling that same rush – you know,  we’ve got to get to market, we’ve got to be No. 1,” she said. “But that’s not always good for launching a business.

“You really have to be strategic. Now, we have room to grow and we have plenty of time. I think COVID kind of reset that clock for everyone.”

One entrepreneur even started a new business, with locations on two continents.

Wendi Young set up an extraction company with locations in Colorado and Belfast, Ireland, while overcoming closed borders and shutdowns across jurisdictions.

Young said she was inspired in part by having to take time off to care for a sick relative.

“There was just a lot of time to really start thinking about, you know, what you want (and) what you want to accomplish,” she said.

Other entrepreneurs found new resilience from their own employees.

“We really saw our team come together in a very big way. Just looking at seeing how people are taking care of each other – I think that was such a big, monumental outcome of COVID,” said Priyanka Sharma, co-CEO of Kazmira, a hemp-derived cannabinoid extraction company based in Colorado.

“It was nice to be able to step back from your own process, see what could be changed with what you were doing over time. … When you’re so in the weeds, you don’t get to step back and see where you can make changes.”

Next normal

So, which changes from the COVID-19 pandemic will stick with the hemp industry?

Andrew Bish, chief operating officer of Bish Enterprises, a harvest-equipment manufacturer in Nebraska, said the pandemic has sparked market attention on non-flower uses for the plant.

“We’re seeing a dramatic upswing in the grain and fiber markets,” Bish said.

“I do think some of that increased demand in grain is coming from people eating at home and looking for more plant-based options, which is really exciting.”

In addition to opening new market demand, the pandemic gave operators an opportunity to close underperforming lines.

“It was a good opportunity to think about really what our primary goals were in the industry,” said Margaret Richardson, chief compliance officer and legal officer at Global Widget, a CBD manufacturer in Orlando, Florida.

“We could think about, in terms of product offerings, really what we wanted to offer.

“It gave us a chance to trim some of the products that weren’t as successful and refocus on formulation. … We came out on the other side, I think, stronger.”

The full discussion on COVID-19 impacts to the hemp industry can be seen below.

And share your insights and predictions live Thursday with Hemp Industry Daily editor Kristen Nichols at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT on Clubhouse.

Hemp imports were cited as a main driver for Congress voting in 2014 to authorize limited experimentation with the crop after decades of head-scratching policies allowing hemp to be bought and sold in the United States — as long as it was grown somewhere else.

But hemp exports have grown dramatically ever since.

Hemp imports grew 82% in the first year after the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill, from $42.9 million in 2014 to $78.1 million in 2015.

Hemp imports continued to climb after hemp authorization was expanded four years later.

Last year the U.S. imported an estimated $87.8 million in hemp, according to the 2021 Hemp & CBD Factbook.

Non-CBD hemp imports into the United States grew by 10% in first 10 months of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019. 

The value of incoming shipments of hempseed through October jumped nearly a quarter compared to 2019, while the value of raw hemp imports leaped by more than a third.

The 10-month values for these two categories exceeded the full-year values for 2019 and offset severe drops in the import of hempseed oil and oilcake in 2020. 

According to the International Trade Commission, Canada remained the top source for hemp imports in 2020, supplying more than 85% of incoming non-CBD products in the 10 months ended October.

China, Romania, the Dominican Republic and Poland rounded out the top five countries delivering hemp fiber, textile and seed products to the United States during that period. 

Compared to 2018, Lithuania, Germany and Bolivia were new entrants to the top 10 list of hemp-exporting countries in 2020. 

More exclusive intelligence about the hemp industry is available in the Hemp & CBD Industry Factbook 2021 Edition. It’s on sale here.

A Canadian manufacturing company that makes agricultural equipment for the marijuana and hemp industries is accusing U.S. Customs and Border Protection of wrongly blocking imports needed by its Washington state subsidiary to build a hemp-trimming machine.

Keirton USA says that Customs agents seized last month in Blaine, Washington, calling the equipment “drug paraphernalia.” The seizure took components the company needed to make vacuums and trimmers.

The company says its Washington state location imports components from Canada, China, Taiwan and Japan.

Keirton filed suit Tuesday, seeking the return of its equipment, plus a court order requiring Customs to allow Keirton’s shipments.

“Keirton has taken appropriate steps to ensure that its merchandise is used only for lawful purposes,” the company said in its lawsuit.

Keirton USA also sued Customs last year, resulting in a settlement. Keirton says the agency broke that agreement in continuing to seize imports.

Keirton is based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Its subsidiary Keirton USA is based in Ferndale, Washington.

Law360 first reported the Keirton lawsuit.

British American Tobacco is selling flavored CBD vapes in the United Kingdom as it eyes new products beyond tobacco and nicotine.

But the parent company of Lucky Strike says it is not ready to enter the THC market yet.

The company’s Chief Marketing Officer, Kingsley Wheaton, told CNBC this week that CBD is an “exciting growth area for our business for the future.”

Last month the company launched a CBD vaping product called Vuse in England. Wheaton called the launch a testing and learning experience but did not disclose sales.

Wheaton said the tobacco company is holding off on THC inhalables because of limited market access.

“It’s a very different regulatory landscape as you go around the world, and many markets remain currently inaccessible for regulatory reasons,” he said.

British American Tobacco trades on the NYSE as BAT.

An executive from international CBD brand Elixinol has been appointed to the board of directors at the U.S. Hemp Authority — one of the industry’s self-regulatory bodies.

“From the start, Elixinol has gone above and beyond when it comes to product efficacy and transparency,” Elixinol CEO for the Americas Tom Siciliano said about his appointment.

“Our involvement with the Authority further solidifies our commitment to quality and higher standards.”

Siciliano recently served as president of Nutritional High International Inc., a marijuana manufacturing and distribution company, and as president and CFO for Canna Security America.

Prior to his work in the cannabis industry, Siciliano worked at startup companies, private equity firms and public Fortune 500 companies.

Siciliano’s appointment is part of the Hemp Authority’s advocacy partnership with the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, where Siciliano is also a board member.

A denim maker owned by the H&M Group has debuted a line of hemp denim dyed with avocados and red onions.

Weekday, a sustainable fashion brand based in Sweden, highlighted its first items made from hemp textiles at Stockholm Fashion Week last week, Sourcing Journal reported.

The garments are dyed with food waste including avocados and red onions for the brand’s first plant-based denim collection.

The hemp jeans built on the company’s previous sustainable material experiments, including a line made from a regenerated textile fiber called Infinna.

The unisex denim line launches March 4 in Sweden, according to Sourcing Journal. Weekday has been part of H&M Group since 2008.