Innovative Nutraceuticals, a California-based CBD manufacturer, is claiming that the federal government seized raw hemp that the company had imported from Spain. In its claim, the company says that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency seized a shipment of raw hemp headed to its Lake Elsinore facility for extraction.
In December last year, Congress passed the Farm Bill, which removed all hemp parts from the Controlled Substances Act. This, in effect, made the cultivation, handling, and sale of industrial hemp legal. Innovative Nutraceuticals says that the federal government is in clear violation of this bill. “These are violations of the 2018 Farm Bill,” said Michael Chernis, adding that he had heard from other CBD manufacturers who have been hurt by wrongful custom seizures.
In response, the federal government asked the court to dismiss most of the CBD manufacturer’s case, issuing a statement in September that the company “has not alleged it is in imminent danger of suffering an injury.” Innovative Nutraceuticals filed a rebuttal, claiming that “customs officials have made it clear that if manufacturers import these lawful products into the United States, they will continue to seize the property and impose fines and penalties.”
“The government is just throwing up all these roadblocks for importing hemp,” says Chernis, “A lot of them are far-fetched.” According to Chernis and fellow lawyers representing cannabis clients, hemp is still routinely seized and destroyed at ports, borders, and airports, despite meeting the required less than 0.3% THC level that has been set by the federal government.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said that living hemp plants and clones, not just seeds, can be imported from other countries. However, U.S Agriculture regulators are currently changing the rules concerning the importation of live hemp plants, leaving hemp business owners in a precarious position. While they don’t need permits from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to import and export live hemp anymore, there is still no clear direction on how to do it.
New USDA policy on moving live hemp sets a different set of rules for importing live hemp from Canada and the rest of the world. Hemp imported from Canada has to come with a phytosanitary certificate from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Hemp from other countries has to have a phytosanitary certificate from the country of origin along with a federal permit used to import any live plant material.
Experts are in agreement that hemp companies like Hemptown USA and Green Hygienics Holdings Inc. (OTCQB: GRYN) and the entire industry will only breathe easy once the USDA hemp rules are published and a clear direction is to industry players.
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