Advanced BioFuels USA

by Martin Wahl (Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest) This is the first in a series of articles being prepared by Lee Enterprises Consulting experts addressing opportunities and concerns for the growing hemp and cannabis industries. Topics will include cultivation, feedstock management, project financing, offtake agreement processing and product development with a focus on scaling up resulting from expanded production to meet the growing demand likely through accelerated mergers and acquisitions in addition to investment in new entities.

Investment in the cannabis sector dried up earlier this year in response to the Covid pandemic, and pent-up demand will likely be unleashed in 2021.

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Investors will likely be cautious, however, seeking risk-mitigated opportunities, likely including more sophisticated technology and operations to support scaled-up production.

In the hemp sector, early entrants flooded the market with production creating a similar opportunity based on the fallout of participants resulting from plummeting CBD prices. Meanwhile, the hemp (non-psychoactive) consumer sector is off and running following the delisting of <.3%THC cannabis/hemp from DEA Schedule 1 and the inclusion of hemp support in the 2018 Farm Bill.

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Cannabis legalization measures are on the ballot in states with a total population of over 21 million – that could bring the US population in cannabis-legal states to more than 312 million – more than 95% of the total US.

Here’s a map showing cannabis legality and pending legislation by state provided by GreenState.com:

To summarize the measures on the ballot this year, five states are ready to vote on either medical, or recreational (or both) cannabis uses.

Arizona, Montana and New Jersey will have a choice to legalize adult recreational use. Mississippi will vote on expanded medical use; currently, only Epidiolex for epilepsy patients is legal. South Dakotans will have a choice of voting on both medical and recreational use, with two cannabis related measures on the ballot.

New Jersey represents the largest possible market. It could be the first mid-Atlantic state to open recreationally. 

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Additionally, there are recreational use measures that may appear on the 2022 ballot in five more states with a total population of 32 million bringing the potential total US population where recreational use is permitted to more than 145 million in 21 states, if all the 2020 and 2022 measures pass.

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Hemp industry participants noted that the H.R.8337, the Continuing Resolution signed into law on October 1 extended the sunset of the 2014 Pilot Program for growing hemp until September 31, 2021. The USDA’s Status of State and Tribal Hemp Production Plans shows that as of September 11, 2020, 29 states now have approved plans, eleven have plans under review, five are using producer license provided by the USDA and two are continuing to use the 2014 Pilot Program.  READ MORE

Cannabis Waste Composting: New company collects marijuana waste from growers, processors and dispensaries, and composts the material in an in-vessel system.  (BioCycle Magazine)