LAS VEGAS, July 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- CannaVest
Corp. (OTCBB: CANV), a leading manufacturer and distributor of hemp
and CBD-based products, donated and successfully delivered a
shipment of industrial hemp seeds to Kentucky's Murray State
University Pilot Cultivation Project. On May 12, 2014, the
seeds were planted, and the project was hailed as the first legal
hemp field in the United States
under the 2014 Farm Bill. Similar shipments by different companies,
have been seized by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which has
resulted in State lawmakers and the Kentucky agriculture department taking court
action against the Justice Department, the DEA, US Customs and
Border Protection and attorney general Eric Holder to force return
of the seeds. Today, KPBS reported in a NPR News interview with
Chris Boucher, Vice President of US
Hemp Oil, LLC (USHO), a subsidiary of CannaVest, that the DEA has
seized a shipment of its industrial hemp seeds bound for a farm in
Colorado at LAX. The online
version of the NPR interview reports that USHO also will "challenge
the DEA's latest seizure of its hemp seeds in court," and suggests
that this type of political action will be needed to eliminate
confusion between Congressional and federal agency enforcement, and
to fully realize the potential of the 2014 Farm Bill, as well as
the growth and competitiveness of a US hemp industry.
The February 2014 Farm Bill defines the industrial hemp plant as
distinct from marijuana, which removes it from the 1970 Controlled
Substances Act (CSA) and federally recognizes current State's
cultivation statutes. US NEWS, reporting on the seizures, cited a
federal law enforcement official, as saying the Department of
Justice – DEA's parent agency – recognizes the law now allows hemp
cultivation but existing procedures for importing items covered by
the Controlled Substances Act must still be followed. An
article in the Guardian revealed that due to Kentucky's agriculture
authorities court action, the DEA eventually relented, issuing a
permit under the CSA, to receive and distribute the seeds to the
pilot projects. An LA Times Op-Ed notes that the real legal
solution is the Industrial Hemp Farming Act, introduced by Sen. Ron
Wyden (D-Ore.), which would allow nationwide commercial hemp
cultivation. It also reports that Kentucky Representative, Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is not waiting for another
brouhaha over seed imports, and has proactively added an amendment
to a bill that controls the DEA's budget to specifically protect
imported hemp seeds from seizure. It passed the House on
May 20, and must now be signed into
law.
CannaVest Corp. President and CEO, Michael Mona, Jr., likens the situation to
"buying a car you can't put gas into." He continues, "as a
forward-looking company, we want to combine the ecological and
economical benefits of hemp, and invest in American farmers, and in
America's carbon-neutral future." Mr. Mona states that,
"CannaVest is interested in creating companies and market
infrastructure that could compete in global 'climate industries.'"
Mr. Mona related that CannaVest Corp. established USHO to serve the
fastest growing hemp import market, estimated at $550 Million – and
with the passage of the Farm Bill, planned to transition the
company into generating initial infrastructure for a domestic hemp
cultivation and export industry; beginning with seed procurement
and cultivation consulting, followed by investment in processing
equipment and mills.
Citing from the US NEWS report, James
Comer, Kentucky's State
Agricultural Commissioner, recognizes a possible niche industry for
the state, which suffered recent economic blows when Fruit of the
Loom and Toyota moved jobs out of state. On June 25, 2014, Felipe
Calderon, the current Chair of The Global Commission on the
Economy and Climate, addressed the Commission saying, the smart
business response to climate change is to limit its impact by
shifting to a low carbon economic model. To further support this
point, in 2009, China's president,
Hu Jintao demanded that Chinese
farmers cultivate 2 million acres of hemp to replace
pesticide-heavy cotton. And in 1998, Canada's government subsidized the seed
cultivation phase of its now nearly $1 Billion industry.
USHO Vice President, Chris
Boucher, who challenged the DEA in 2000, as Co-Founder of
HIA, and in 1994 after planting the then first legal research field
in the US in 50 years, said, "[b]elieve it or not, I thought within
two years (of 1994) we would have a factory up and running, and
there would be 10,000 acres" of US industrial hemp. Mr. Boucher
also "hopes to one day get hemp not from Canada or France or China, but from a few miles away, in the
Imperial Valley." An economically viable crop could provide
an industry, for its residents, who the LA Times reports, have the
country's second highest unemployment rate.
The full NPR Interview can be viewed
at:http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/jul/21/meet-san-diegos-johnny-hempseed/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kpbs%2Ftv+(KPBS+TV%3A+Program+Hightlights)
About CannaVest
Corp.
CannaVest Corp. (OTCBB:CANV),
located in Las Vegas, Nevada,
focuses on the procurement and wholesale of the hemp plant extract
cannabidiol (CBD), and the development, marketing and sale of end
consumer products containing CBD, which is refined into its
own PlusCBD Oil™. Additionally, it resells raw industrial hemp
product to third parties, acquired through supply relationships in
Europe. Additional information is
available from OTCMarkets.com or by visiting www.cannavest.com.
About CannaVest Laboratories, LLC (A Division of CannaVest
Corp.)
CannaVest Laboratories a division of CannaVest
Corp. (OTCBB:CANV) based in San Diego,
California, facilitates cutting edge research on and
develops pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and food products,
containing cannabidiol (CBD) oil; and is the developer and
manufacturer of CannaVest's own award winning pharmaceutical-grade
PlusCBD Oil™. For more information visit:
www.cannavestlabs.com.
About US Hemp Oil, LLC (A Division of CannaVest
Corp.)
US Hemp Oil, LLC, a division of CannaVest Corp.,
located in San Diego, California,
provides seed procurement, cultivation, processing, and production
consultation; and equipment, to support US farmers, researchers and
businesses to cultivate and process industrial hemp in the US.
USHO, plans to build seed-processing mills and bring hemp based
products to market. For more information, please visit:
www.ushempoil.com
CONTACT: Chris Boucher,
949-510-9971, chrisboucher@cannavest.com
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SOURCE CannaVest Corp.