For over 10,000 years, the hemp plant has been a valuable crop used for a variety of purposes. From clothing and building materials to paper and health products, hemp played a key role in the formation of nations and the emergence of global powers. Up until 1776, many colonies passed laws to encourage farmers to grow the useful crop, and Virginia even passed a law that imposed a fine on those who didn’t plant hemp.
Years later, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed, and taxes were imposed on the domestic production of industrial hemp crops. Just 20 years later, these taxes had effectively eliminated domestic hemp production, making it too expensive to compete with international operations. In 1970, the Marihuana Tax Act was repealed and replaced by the Controlled Substances Act, which mistakenly classified hemp as a schedule I substance and outlawed its production across the nation.
Despite bans on production, industrial hemp has been legal to import into the U.S. for years. According to a report by the Los Angeles Times, industrial hemp in Canada – a major supplier to the U.S. – is just shy of a $1 billion industry. In 2013, Canadian farmers were clearing profits in excess of $250 per acre, which, when compared to the $71 per acre that American farmers net from soy crops, could represent a major financial boost for the nation’s struggling agricultural industry.
While hemp production remains banned at the federal level, tremendous progress has been made in recent years toward correcting the ban. In 2014, President Obama signed a bill that removed hemp grown for research purposes from the Controlled Substances Act. Later that year, Congress blocked the Drug Enforcement Administration from using federal funds to interfere with state-legal industrial hemp programs. Since then, states have been taking it upon themselves to revitalize hemp production while studying the potential economic and ecological benefits.
Hemp, Inc. (OTC: HEMP), through wholly-owned subsidiary Industrial Hemp Manufacturing, LLC, is set to capitalize on the country’s growing hemp movement through the operation of the largest decortication plant in North America, which is located in Spring Hope, North Carolina. In a forward thinking move, the company’s management team initiated construction and installation activities at the 70,000-square-foot warehouse months ago in preparation for the imminent legalization of industrial hemp production in the state. Hemp, Inc. plans to complete the decortication plant by the end of the year, and this timing could be ideal to capitalize on North Carolina’s evolving regulatory atmosphere regarding industrial hemp.
Earlier this month, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory passed Senate Bill 313, marking a significant step toward sustainable financial growth for Hemp, Inc. The purposes of the law are to “establish an agricultural pilot program for the cultivation of industrial hemp in the state… and to pursue any federal permits or waivers necessary to allow industrial hemp to be grown in the state.”
Hemp, Inc.’s decision to keep its decortication plant in North Carolina appears set to pay off in the coming months. For prospective shareholders, the company is an intriguing opportunity to capitalize on the impending reemergence of one of the world’s oldest and most useful crops.
For more information, visit www.hempinc.com
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