Hemp Unlocks Dreams – and a Business – for Highway Vodka

By Jean Lotus

Houston-based Highway Vodka founder Ben Williams credits the seeds of the hemp plant with turning his nine-year old hobby distilling liquors into a business selling Texas’s first hemp-based vodka. 

Adding hemp to his kitchen-table spirit formulations created a flavor that he immediately recognized as a winner, he told Let’s Talk Hemp. 

“Hemp vodka had a nuanced flavor and a smoother mouth-feel that I knew was a win from the beginning,” he said.

Highway Vodka
Ben Williams, founder of Houston-based Highway Vodka, said adding hemp to his distilled spirits created the flavor that launched his business. Photo courtesy of Highway Vodka.

Compliance Essentials for Hemp-CBD Companies

By Asa Waldstein

This is the first article in a three-part Compliance Essentials for Hemp-CBD Companies series. I explore commonly overlooked manufacturing, labeling, and marketing essentials ingestible cannabinoid companies need to be compliant. My first segment focuses on manufacturing.

With a lack of clarity happening at the federal level, my advice for hemp cannabinoid companies is to act like they want to be regulated, which is a dietary supplement in the case of ingestible products. These are CFR 111 or cGMPs for supplements.

Asa Waldstein
Asa Waldstein

Hemp News Spotlight

Michigan Consolidates Cannabis, Hemp Regulatory Bodies
By Regulatory News

Tennessee Hemp Farmers Worry They’ll Have to Destroy Crops Due to New Rules
By News Channel 5

USDA Pegs Value of Hemp Harvested in 2021 at $824M
By HempToday

What’s a Hemp Egg? Here’s the Deal with Kreider Farms’ Latest Offering
By Lancaster Farming

Synthetic THC from Hemp May Soon Compete with Marijuana in Michigan
By mlive.com

Understanding Hemp Plastics
By Packaging Strategies

10 Tips For a Successful Start to the Growing Season
By Hemp Grower

Advocates Continue Push for Delta-8, Hemp Regulation in Tennessee
By News Channel 5

Organic Hemp Demand Shifting to Grain, Fiber
By Lancaster Farmer

Hemp is the Hero Ingredient for Plant Based Foods
By Food Business News 

Hemp Batt Insulation Company Raises $5.7 M in Seed Funding
By HempBuild Magazine

EVENTS

5th Annual Indigenous Hemp Conference, March 1-2, 2022, Callaway, MN, Presented by Winona’s Hemp & Heritage Farm and the Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute

NoCo Hemp Expo, Mar. 23-25, 2022, Denver, CO

HempCrete Workshop, April 4-18, 2022, Toledo, Belize, Presented by Heavenly Grown

Southern Hemp Expo, Aug. 18-20, 2022 – Save the Date!

Add your event to Hemp Events, a free listing service for legitimate hemp industry events. Visit www.HempEvents.org.

NoCo Hemp Expo Tickets

Hold The Date for August 18-20, 2022. SHE returns to Nashville!

Southern Hemp Expo

TAKE ACTION

Join the WAFBA Team – Sales and Marketing Specialist
WAFBA is looking for a sales and marketing person to assist with our events and media division. Responsibilities would include prospecting and sales of exhibition booths, sponsorship and advertising. Experience preferred in the hemp, CBD and cannabis industries with a knowledge of companies working throughout the supply chain. Apply here.

U.S. Hemp Operator Survey: Take a 3-Minute Survey to Have Your Voice Heard
The Third Annual Survey – Whitney Economics, a leading hemp data, business consulting and economic analytics firm is conducting a national survey of hemp operators. Your inputs would be appreciated. Just like in past years, in exchange for your inputs, Whitney Economics will be sending you a free copy of the report once it is written and presented at the NoCo Hemp Conference (ETA is mid-March).

Why Take This Survey?
What differentiates the Whitney Economics surveys from others, is that our report gives you actionable data that can help drive improvements in your operations and can help identify key areas to focus on for future success.

Trace Wants to Make the First Hemp and Regenerative Cotton Tampon and We Need Your Help!
The world is ready for hemp fiber products, and we all know it! But the CEOs, the manufacturers, the research and development teams, and the “big dogs” at the heads of companies need to see numbers supporting this if they are going to invest in innovative hemp products. Please help the advancement of hemp fiber within the hygiene and period care industry by filling out this survey, offered by Trace Femcare, Inc., making the first hemp and regenerative Climate Beneficial (TM) cotton tampon. Your voice matters! Let’s heal the earth and our bodies! Love– the team at Trace.

Save Ti & His 329 Rights
If you or a loved one are a medical cannabis patient, this affects you. Ti is an autistic 15 year old who was abruptly removed from his mother/medical caregiver on June 3, 2021 by Child Welfare Services in Hawaii. This GoFundMe has been set up to pay for his legal fees needed to promptly dismiss the CWS case and enforce their civil and medical rights to have access to his medical professionals to participate in providing for his medical needs. Any donation no matter how big or small means we are that much closer to getting Ti back.

Support H.R. 841, The Hemp and Hemp-Derived CBD Consumer Protection and Market Stabilization Act
In September 2020, U.S. Reps. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) and Morgan Griffith (R-VA) introduced the Hemp and Hemp-Derived CBD Consumer Protection and Market Stabilization Act – a bill which would provide a clear legal pathway for the sale of hemp extracts like CBD, while ensuring that products must comply with the rigorous regulatory framework existing for dietary supplements. The bill garnered broad bi-partisan support. On Feb. 7, 2021, Reps. Schrader and Griffith and 17 of their colleagues reintroduced the bill as H.R. 841. Support passage of the bill here.

Urge Your Members of Congress to Support Our Troops’ Access to CBD
On July 20, 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to allow service members to use products containing hemp, including CBD. Unfortunately, the amendment was not included in the Senate’s version of the NDAA, which passed on July 23, and was not included in the final bill. However, as a new Congress meets this year, they are hoping for another hearing. Learn more.

Subscribe to the Let’s Talk Hemp YouTube Channel

#LetsTalkHemp is the ultimate platform that focuses on “Changing the Cannabis Conversation”. We provide news, education, and information about Hemp and Cannabis to our viewers so that they can learn more about the industry and get tips and tricks on the latest technologies. Subscribe to our channel and learn about everything from legal updates, farming, production, and new products entering the Hemp & Cannabis space.


Have You Joined Leafwire Yet?

If you’re not a member of Leafwire yet, you should definitely check out the largest business network in the cannabis industry, with more than 40,000 members. Members include growers, budtenders, accountants, lawyers, CBD companies, equipment manufacturers, investors and more. Leafwire is for anyone who works in the cannabis industry, and also features a job board with 1,100 open cannabis and hemp jobs. Leafwire is designed to be a LinkedIn-style business network where the cannabis Industry can share news, promote events, find new jobs, find investors and simply network with their peers. Leafwire is 100% dedicated to the Cannabis and Hemp industries and the perfect place to post and share information about your company, new product launches or other related news. We’ll see you on Leafwire!


About Let’s Talk Hemp

Let’s Talk Hemp is a publication of Colorado Hemp Company (a division of We Are For Better Alternatives) focused specifically on the subject of industrial hemp and cannabis. We present features and curate news from across the globe to share the benefits of cannabis on health, energy, manufacturing and planet (H.E.M.P.). Colorado Hemp Company also is the Producer of NoCo Hemp Expo and Southern Hemp Expo, the nation’s leading hemp conferences and expositions.

Publisher: Morris Beegle, Elizabeth Knight
Editor: Steven Hoffman
Web Developer: Debby West
Design: Ben Wright
Circulation: Evan Tompros
Contributors:  Steven Hoffman, Jean Lotus
Financial Officer: Lori Buderus

Send Us Your Hemp News!

Send press releases and news announcements to news@letstalkhemp.com

View the Complete Let’s Talk Hemp Content Library!
You can access all past issues of Let’s Talk Hemp in our Archives at LetsTalkHemp.com

The post Newsletter – February 23, 2022 first appeared on Let’s Talk Hemp.


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