Your Feedback to the Hemp Authority Program is Needed by April 15

Tell the Hemp Authority your thoughts about its certification program before April 15.

I recently wrote about deficiencies in the certification program proposed by the Hemp Authority that are concerning to a number of industry stakeholders. You can read our open letter about the program here.

In response to the open letter, we were invited to a meeting in Anaheim, CA held by the Authority and its sponsors, the Hemp Roundtable and the Hemp Industry Association. I wrote about that meeting here.

As a result, on March 20, 2019, the Hemp Roundtable circulated a request for comments about the program. I note that the Hemp Authority website suggests that it has been soliciting public comments for over two weeks, since March 5; however, this does not appear to be the case. The meeting in Anaheim was held on March 4. In a March 13 email response to an inquiry I made about when it would solicit comments, I was told that the notice regarding comments “will be on the website”. The Hemp Roundtable’s March 20 email appears to be the first public solicitation for comments.

The Hemp Authority wants your comments on its certification program, which it is calling “Guidance Plan 1.0“, so that it can revise it into “Guidance plan 2.0”. You can comment by clicking here. The deadline for commenting is April 15, 2019.

The Hemp Authority has stated that comments should include “specific guidance language for any new provisions that commenters believe should be included in Guidance Plan 2.0. We will only consider comments that provide the commenter’s name, email and/or phone number.”

Please let your industry friends and colleagues know about this important matter. Feel free to share this article. Thank you.

March 21, 2019

Rod Kight is an attorney who represents lawful cannabis businesses. He speaks at cannabis conferences across the country, drafts and presents cannabis legislation to foreign governments, is regularly quoted on cannabis matters in the media, and maintains the Kight on Cannabis legal blog, where he discusses legal issues affecting the cannabis industry. You can contact him here.