Houston entrepreneur Jerry Walters says he’s almost ready to launch a startup that will produce research, data and medicinal products from cannabinoids, a non-psychocative compound found in hemp plants. He has nearly every question in his supply chain answered: who will grow the plants, where he’ll process and extract the oils and which pharmacies will sell his products.
Despite the promise of a bonanza from the state’s legalization of industrial hemp, a cousin of the marijuana producing cannabis plant, Walters and other entrepreneurs have quickly found that investors and banks they need to finance their enterprises are reluctant to take a chance on the new industry. Part of the reason is Texas regulators are several months from adopting rules under which this new industry would operate, but other uncertainties — as fundamental as how much a pound of hemp is worth — are keeping money on the sidelines.
