Hemp Committee Final Meeting May 20, Program Starts June 1
BY MIKEL WEISSER
It all comes down to one final meeting for AZ’s Ag Dept Industrial Hemp committee. This week Industrial Hemp Program Manager, Brian McGrew, announced the date of their final committee meeting on May 20th to complete regulations for the eagerly awaited program that launches June first.
Among the topics will be a report on rules updates and answers to previously unsettled questions. The committee will also explain the process to finalize the administrative language governing the program and detail what’s ahead for the first year of the state’s hemp program.
State lawmakers legalized industrial hemp in Arizona in the spring of 2018 after more than 80yrs of the federal prohibition against all forms of cannabis. By the end of 2018 the US Farm Bill legalized agricultural production of the hemp nationwide. In response, Arizona accelerated their program launch and farmers are expected to get their first harvest in before the end of the year.
Nationally the US hemp industry is expected to explode with revenues s high as $10 billion a year by 2022. According to Arizona’s Dept of Agriculture our current agricultural production is an estimated $17 billion annually. For more info on AZ’s new program check out the Dept. of Ag’s Industrial Hemp home page or review their guideline document here.
The meeting will be held on Monday, May 20, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. at the Arizona State
University, Beus Center for Law and Society, W.P. Carey Foundation Armstrong Great Hall.
—Mikel Weisser is the editor of Arizona Cannabis Monthly and state director of Arizona NORML