Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a bill April 11 authorizing hemp food ingredients to be marketed as commercial feed.

HB 396 could be a significant step forward in opening markets for the developing American hemp grain industry. Key features of the bill include:

• Clarifies hemp seed food ingredients and substances derived from hemp are included in the definition of commercial feed.

• Provides authority for hemp for use as commercial feed for pets and horses.

• Includes feed use with other livestock, effectiveness contingent upon FDA-DVM approval of hemp as an approved additive or defined ingredient in animal food or medicated feed for livestock.

Three bills revising marijuana laws passed their final reading in the Montana House Thursday afternoon.

House Bills 701, 707 and 670 are all measures generally revising laws relating to the taxation and regulation of recreational and medical marijuana.

HB 701 would give licensing, cultivation and sales authority of medical marijuana to the Department of Revenue, as well as create separate license categories for cultivation, manufacturing, dispensing and transporting marijuana.

HB 707 would provide taxation for marijuana at the wholesale level and create wholesale licenses.

HB 670 would create a marijuana revenue trust fund, increase the medical marijuana tax rate to 5% and decrease the adult-use marijuana tax rate to 15%, among other things.

Hemp cultivated for seed and grain comprised approximately ten percent of 2020 total U.S. acreage, approximately 14,000 acres, according to data provided by Hemp Benchmarks.

By comparison, Canadian cultivators grew more than five times that acreage, beyond 75,000 acres, the vast majority of which were exported to the United States.

With Montana set to become the next state to legalize marijuana, lawmakers in Big Sky Country will have some options on how to go about implementing the policy.

Local TV outlet KPAX reported this week that legislators there in the state House have “advanced three bills that provide different visions for how to implement recreational marijuana in the state, after legislative leadership asked them to keep all three alive.”

The owners of Montana Advanced Caregivers, a medical marijuana dispensary in Billings, say their business and the state will lose millions of dollars if the voter-approved recreational marijuana program were delayed until January 2023.

Maine officially rolled out adult-use cannabis sales last October. Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota, Montana, and Mississippi are all on track to open up shop soon, creating a greater likelihood that we'll see more cannabis dispensaries across the U.S. sooner rather than later. 

According to Zendesk's Customer Experience Trends Report 2020, "nearly three out of four customers (74 percent) feel loyal to a specific brand or company, and more than half (52 percent) will go out of their way to buy from their favorite brands or businesses."

When it comes to the North vs the South in America, there is usually a pretty evident divide when it comes to social issues. From abortion to religion in schools to drugs, the South is generally slower to adopt new policies. In the case of cannabis and the south, a lot of change has happened in the last few years, signaling a massive shift in overall public perspective.

“This shows what can happen when politics override the will of the people and causes a stalemate in the rollout of voter-favored programs,” says one industry expert.

Four of the five states that passed cannabis-centric ballot initiatives on Election Day 2020 have since run into hurdles.

The pathway from ballot question to implementation has only been smooth for one of the five states to pass measures recently — Arizona. Adult use sales began on Jan. 22, with many medical dispensaries expanding to adult use to accommodate the newly opened market.

The Copper State sets a new bar by opening its market just a couple months after passing an initiative. Lawmakers from the other four states, however, are stalling the process.

As of January 1, 2021, it is no longer illegal to possess small amounts of marijuana for recreational use in Montana. However, there are still a number of questions before any legal sales take place.