Colombia’s legislature is discussing several initiatives that seek to regulate production and consumption of cannabis for recreational purposes among adults.

On Sept. 16, the first committee of the Lower House approved the first debate with a narrow vote of 18-17, allowing the first bill to move forward to the plenary of the Lower House.

Separately, a group of 38 lawmakers of the opposition and the center-right parties led by Sens. Gustavo Bolivar and Luis Fernando Velasco submitted a second congressional bill that aims to regulate marijuana production and consumption, a move that proves Colombia more than ever before is ready to debate initiatives that would end the so-called war on drugs and seek effective solutions to drug trafficking.

“There is a high chance that the bill could be approved in Congress because Colombia has advanced strongly on defending the rights of individuals, which explain why during the first debate even lawmakers of right-wing fractions voted in favor,” Velasco, a member of the liberal party who is leading the second initiative at the Senate, told Cannabis Business Times.

The first initiative at the Lower House led by opposition lawmaker Juan Carlos Lozada seeks to amend article 49 of the Colombian Constitution, which states “the carrying and consumption of narcotic or psychotropic substances is prohibited unless prescribed by a doctor.” If the bill gets approved, it would allow cannabis and its derivatives use for recreational purposes. It would also allow consumers to acquire cannabis at stores and lift a ban that today forces consumers to go to illegal outlets.

In other words, the initiative will support earlier rulings from the country’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, which recognizes the fundamental rights to equality and  free development of the personality.

The bill at the Lower House, which requires eight congressional debates to become a law —four at the Lower House and four at the Senate—will face heated opposition among right-wing fractions that support Colombian President Ivan Duque, according to Jota Nicolas Vergara, adviser to lawmaker Lozada.

“Before Dec. 20, when the current legislature ends, the bill must receive the second debate in the Lower House plenary so that it can move forward into the next legislature that begins in March. The eight debates must be fully approved by the end of 2021,” Vergara explained.

In the Senate, pro-government parties control the majority with 70 of the total 120 seats. In the Lower House, 90 pro-government members of the 140 lawmakers control this chamber, explained Vergara.

In spite of staunch opposition for upcoming debates, lawmakers in favor believe some pro-government delegates may approve the initiative as it happened during the first debate when Gabriel Santos, a lawmaker from the pro-government Democratic Center party, voted in favor. This is a sign that Colombia is willing to regulate marijuana consumption as the West has seen in Uruguay and in some U.S. states, Velasco said.

The second initiative led by Sens. Bolivar and Velasco aims to regulate cannabis by creating a legal framework for production, commercialization and consumption for recreational purposes among adults. This initiative also prohibits cannabis access to minors, bans advertising or promotion of cannabis and establishes regulated sites for adult consumption. This initiative should receive its first debate by the end of October, Gloria Miranda, adviser to Bolivar, said. The bill must be fully approved by the end of next year to become a law.

Unlike the Lower House initiative, this bill will only require four debates in Congress as it will not amend the Constitution. It seeks to take advantage of previous rulings from the Constitutional Court, which lessened the scope of article 49 of the Constitution.

In 1986, the Constitutional Court allowed Colombians to carry a small dose of 20 grams of cannabis in what is called the personal dose. Then, the Supreme Court of Justice  said people have the right to carry the minimum dose and to stock up on that amount. Later, the president tried to prohibit the carrying and consumption of the minimum dose, but the Constitutional Court said the move was unconstitutional last year.

The senators argue that official figures show that prohibiting cannabis consumption has not prevented consumers from not having access to this substance.

A survey carried out by the country’s statistics department in 2019 found that 8% of people aged between 12 to 65 reported having consumed marijuana at some time in their lives. A smaller percentage, 2.68% of people in that age group, said they had consumed marijuana in the past 12 months. Other findings showed that of the different illegal psychoactive substances, the earliest consumption is that of marijuana with 18.1 years on average.

The 38 lawmakers who support the initiative said changes to regulation are needed because consumption will happen with or without regulation—“but with regulation, the state will have the control of the business and it will establish a larger control on the sale of marijuana,” Velasco said. Legalization will dismantle illegal markets, according to the 74-page bill.

“The prohibition itself made the large drug traffickers fragment into retail drug organizations. We no longer have the Medellin or the Cali cartel, they mutated into retail drug organizations and that has been more difficult to control,” Miranda said.

In Uruguay, the legalization of production, commercialization and consumption of cannabis allowed the government to take up to 40% of the marijuana business from cartels, noting that the illegal market stopped receiving around 20 million euros in recent years, Miranda said.

Pro-government lawmaker Alejandro Corrales from the Center Democratic party said endorsing consumption of marijuana would bring counterproductive effects on public health as is a stepping stone to allow addiction to stronger drugs.

“Recreational cannabis has a negative effect on human health as it increases working accidents by 55% and work absenteeism by 75%. Marijuana is the gateway to reaching stronger substances,” he said.

The future of hemp as a legal crop is secure regardless of the outcome of the contentious 2020 election due, in great part, to its widespread support on Capitol Hill.

While there is much uncertainty in the 2020 election with the presidency and control of the Senate up for grabs, Vote Hemp President Eric Steenstra says support across the aisle helps ensure a secure future for hemp. Vote Hemp is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to the acceptance of and free market for hemp as an agricultural crop in the U.S.

However, he adds that politics' lack of impact cuts both ways as the Drug Enforcement Agency is unlikely to change its hardline stance on the crop regardless of what happens on November 3^rd.

The Presidential Race

Steenstra, who has been advocating for hemp for 20 years, believes that both the Republican incumbent President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden will support hemp. Trump has shown support in the past by signing into law the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill), which reestablished hemp as a legal crop.

Biden and the Democrats have long supported the legalization of cannabis-based products, including hemp. One note of caution, Steenstra adds, is that Biden's running mate Kamala Harris had been tough on marijuana as California's Attorney General. But Harris came out as recently as the October 7^th vice-presidential debate in favor of federal legalization of marijuana, which Steenstra notes presumably shows support of hemp as well.

The Senate

The future of the Senate is in question, Steenstra says, but either way, hemp looks to continue to have bipartisan support. This is true because both the current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have long supported the crop. 

Despite this fact, Steenstra says that McConnell's re-election bid is the most important race to watch in the upcoming election. Vote Hemp's focus on this race is not because of Democratic challenger Amy McGrath's position on hemp, as she supports the crop. Instead, the race is essential because McConnell has been such a big proponent of hemp.

"There's nobody in Washington that's done more for hemp than McConnell over the past couple of years," Steenstra says, adding, "I don't think we would have gotten it over the finish line in the 2018 Farm Bill if it wasn't for his work."

Another issue in play is who will take over the chairmanship of the pivotal Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee that has jurisdiction over hemp farming. With Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) retiring, there is a question of who will take over if Republicans maintain control of the chamber. If Democrats take the Senate, then the committee's leadership would likely fall to Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who Steenstra says has been supportive of hemp, which is legally farmed in her state.

Regulatory Agencies

All in all, the election may have only a small effect on the hemp industry, as regulatory agencies remain the dominant force over hemp’s future. Agencies like the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and their policy positions are driven in large part by career staff, not political appointees, Steenstra says. So, despite who wins in November, the DEA is likely to continue to place roadblocks in the hemp industry's way.

This fact is particularly relevant given the DEA's interim rule, Implementation of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, which designates all hemp derivatives or extracts exceeding 0.3% THC as Schedule I controlled substances. Vote Hemp alleges this could be interpreted to include intermediate hemp derivatives that temporarily exceed 0.3% during processing but contain less than 0.3% in final products. The group, as well as other industry associations, such as the Hemp Industries Association, and companies like RE Botanicals, argue that the DEA is overstepping its regulatory authority and undermining the intent of the 2018 law.

The dispute with the DEA does raise one final issue for hemp in the upcoming election: Who would take over for Agriculture Secretary Sonny Purdue under the Biden administration, and what effect would that leave on the industry?

This appointment is worth watching if Biden were to prevail, Steenstra says, because Purdue has been such a strong advocate for hemp and against the DEA having a role in overseeing the crop. He made this point clear during testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee in March when he accused the agency of tying the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s hands in its efforts to regulate and support the emerging crop.

By Nov. 1, Hawaii’s hemp farmers will need to apply for a USDA license. After two recent attempts to enact a law governing hemp production in the state, the legislature kicked oversight and licensing to the USDA earlier this year.

With fall harvest upon the state’s farmers, there’s also a bit of pressure to apply for a new USDA license in time to plant seeds in the spring. (The application can be viewed and downloaded here.) And while it’s not a total overhaul of everything Hawaiian hemp farmers have been doing to comply with the research program, per se, the sudden switch says a lot about how the state has approached the budding hemp industry over the past few years. 

Ray Maki runs Permaculture Kaua'i Nursery and Farm on Kaua’i, the northernmost island of the state. He also serves as president of the Hawaii Hemp Farmers Association. With his three or four acres of sativa varieties, Maki has been growing for his own in-house CBD extraction; until the USDA program kicks in, he and the other four dozen farmers in Hawaii are unable to transport hemp off their property.

As of October 2020, Hawaii’s Department of Agriculture reported nearly 50 licensed hemp growers cultivating a total of 440 acres. It’s a small but earnest foundation for a Hawaiian hemp industry that’s seen fits and starts.

In 2019, Gov. David Ige vetoed an industrial hemp bill that would have regulated the state industry and allowed growers to participate a more functional supply chain—including the sale of hemp biomass to processors, who in turn could sell packaged products to retail customers.

“It was really frustrating from a farmer’s perspective,” Maki says.

The central issue, according to the governor’s office, was the regulation of THC within the hemp market. Ige wrote that the bill, S.B. 1353, could set up a law enforcement clash between THC-rich cannabis and industrial hemp. 

“Although I support the growth and development of Hawai‘i’s hemp industry, the increased THC concentration in new marijuana strains is a concern for our communities,” Ige wrote at the time of his veto. “We cannot allow unregulated growth cycles of hemp if it could result in unsupervised growth of marijuana. 

“I want to assure you that the veto of this measure will not delay Hawai‘i’s industrial hemp program. All states are patiently awaiting USDA’s implementation of its final rule for the Hemp Protection Program. Upon release, HDOA will work with the legislature to mesh the federal rules with our local legislation to ensure that we have a program that meets federal requirements and provides proper oversight of the industry.”

A follow-up bill materialized in the state in 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic and its attendant economic pressures pushed the matter back far enough that, eventually, the state picked up the USDA program. Now, Hawaii joins states like New Hampshire and Mississippi in passing the oversight torch to the federal government. 

And while the sudden shift to the USDA program is a bit jolting, Maki says Hawaii already has several strikes against its upstart hemp farmers: certain environmental factors and the obstinance of the state legislature.

"What I've learned, and it’s been steep learning curve here for the last few years, is that Hawaii is at a major disadvantage to other states in growing hemp at any kind of scale,” Maki says. “Our biggest problem is our day length.”

Daylight hours range from a high of 13.5 hours around the summer solstice to 11 hours in mid-December, a much more restrictive range than states like Colorado where the range is closer to 5.5 hours. The shorter daylight hours tend to trigger the hemp plants’ flowering phase—often earlier than intended. Maki says many Hawaiian hemp growers (and medical cannabis growers) must work around this by investing in greenhouse lights, rather than simply relying on the sun.

Another problem that Maki cites is the UVB radiation from the equatorial sunlight is intense enough to spur more rapid THC development—the subject of ongoing study in the lighting research community. He also says that the intense sunlight generates rich terpene profiles, part of the Hawaiian-grown brand that might be one of the state’s strengths in the national marketplace. For hemp growers under strict cannabinoid regulation, it’s a difficult give-and-take.

Other Hawaii-specific issues include:

- the constant high humidity (around 80-85%) that cuts into potential post-harvest storage time;

- the relatively high winds that knocked down many of Maki’s hemp plants earlier this summer, something with which all farmers in the state must contend;

- and the allure of year-round hemp cultivation dampened by increased disease and mold pressures during the winter months, making it tough to grow at scale in the otherwise terrific temperatures of Hawaii.

“I think everybody thought that once [the industry] opened up, producing at any kind of scale would be possible year-round, but I see less and less of a possibility of it, personally,” Maki says. “I know other guys might think differently, but I'm a little bit skeptical about how much it’s worth growing during the winter here.”

During this upcoming winter season, Maki won’t be trying again. He’ll plan to revisit his hemp crop with spring planting under the USDA regime.

“I think that the promise of Hawaii is still to be determined and find out whether we finally have an operating program in the spring of 2021,” Maki says.

Until then, it still remains to be seen how farmers come out of the 2020 season.

In 2019, more than half of all hemp crops grown in Hawaii were hot. Shelley Choy, hemp program coordinator for the state Department of Agriculture, said at the time that the high rate of hot crops was part and parcel of a research pilot program. Whether the more stringent USDA guidelines next year will make a difference is a significant question. 

While the U.S. Congress decided to push back the states’ pilot program termination date by one year, Hawaii’s legislature had already abandoned its program in favor of the USDA’s interim final rule.