Hemp in the United States: A Case Study of Regulatory Path Dependence

Abstract

The Agricultural Act of 2014 allowed for federally funded research on hemp for the first time since 1937. Since 2014, pro-hemp legislation has received increasingly bipartisan support, culminating with the Hemp Farming Act of 2018, which would remove industrial hemp from its current listing as a Schedule 1 drug, and allow hemp to be treated like any other agricultural commodity. In part because of this legalization, hemp production in the United States has the potential to increase substantially. This study describes what is known about the economic and regulatory considerations of U.S. hemp agriculture through the lens of path dependency. Important questions remain regarding the legal and regulatory landscape of hemp, and are further complicated by its current listing as a Schedule 1 drug.

A Review on the Current State of Knowledge of Growing Conditions, Agronomic Soil Health Practices and Utilities of Hemp in the United States

“…The interest in hemp and its benefits has spurred since significant changes in the legalization of hemp in the USA [5]. For decades, federal law did not differentiate hemp from other Cannabis plants.…”

“…Since then, 41 states have passed legislation that allows hemp cultivation. The 2018 Farm Bill declassified hemp from the list of controlled substances and legalized the production of hemp as an agricultural commodity [5]. According to the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp that is allowed to be cultivated should have a THC threshold of 0.3%.…”

Evaluation of the effects of CBD hemp extract on opioid use and quality of life indicators in chronic pain patients: a prospective cohort study

“…Despite increasing state-level legalization, cannabis plants with higher levels (>0.3%) of THC are considered 'marijuana' and are federally illegal in the U.S [18]. Low THC (<0.3%) cannabis plants, known as hemp, and its extracts have been recently deemed federally legal in the U.S. via pilot programs in Section 7606 of the 2014 Farm Bill, subsequently made permanent via the 2018 Farm Bill [19][20][21]. Therefore, hemp-derived cannabis extracts, low in THC and high in CBD, have become increasingly available as over-thecounter products and subject to widespread consumer use across diverse populations [22].…”

Coexistence of Cooperative Models as Structural Answer to Lock-Ins in Diversification Pathways: The Case of the Walloon Dairy Sector

“…The combination of the Multi-Level Perspective with other theoretical frames has been theoretically discussed (Hargreaves et al, 2013b;Fuenfschilling and Truffer, 2014;Pesch, 2015;Rauschmayer et al, 2015;Geels, 2020) as a way to consider how interacting agents coevolve with shifting meanings and institutions in transition pathways. These combinations allow to refine the comprehension of the lock-ins hindering agency in a stabilized regime, and interactions between agents toward patterns of coexistence (Plumecocq et al, 2018;Buschmann and Oels, 2019;Malone and Gomez, 2019). Although some authors state that the Multi-Level Perspective alone falls short of conceptual tools to approach the interactions between agents as drivers of change (McMeekin and Southerton, 2012;Whitmarsh, 2012;Diaz et al, 2013;Hargreaves et al, 2013a;Hassink et al, 2013;Pesch, 2015;de Haan and Rotmans, 2018).…”