13/04/2024
Coffee Talk with Patrica Szappanos Hart - Cannabis Director of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture.
Dateline: 4-9-24
This morning, The Old H**p Farmer is waiting for the Sun to warm up Middle Tennessee and it will. Yesterday, Lee Crabtree trimmed our Tennessee Volunteer (aka Readyville God Bud) “Moms”, so this morning, The Old H**p Farmer’s Wife made H**p leaf Smoothies, the first of the year, it tasted great. Now The Old H**p Farmer is once again enjoying a cup of organic Indonesian coffee and a couple squares of Full Spectrum Tennessee homegrown dark chocolate. As my fingers start to limber, we will mosey into today’s Cannabis observations. In Tennessee, we are less than three months away from full implementation of our H**p Derived Cannabinoid law, HB0403 and since Tennessee homegrown products are in a score or more stores, we are starting to get questions from our merchants. Questions that The Old H**p Farmer couldn’t answer, so I decided to call the lady in charge of Cannabis in Tennessee and get some answers. It was quite easy to get a phone call/interview with Patrica Sazappanos Hart, the Cannabis Program Director, Consumer and Industry Services - Tennessee Department of Agriculture, which is a rather large title but then again the Cannabis Industry is rather large.
First of all, Ms. Hart was accessible, gracious, sincere and pretty forthright. The good news about Ms. Hart is that she is pro Cannabis and wanted the job even though she knew it was going to be like driving a few miles on a bad road. My main question was, do Full Spectrum CBD tinctures and edibles come under the auspices of HB0403 and do you need get a license and pay Excise Tax? Madam Director didn’t try to do double speak or be obtuse, she cut to the chase and Ms. Hart said she didn’t know and wasn’t sure of when she would know. Madam Director’s very candid answer kind of startled me, yours truly thought by now, the final rules would kind of be a done deal. Which prompted me to ask, why after almost a year to get ready, the TDA wasn’t ready? And in a very refreshing moment of candor, she admitted that the task of implementing rules, training Cannabis field agents and informing all of the producers and retailers of the all of the various rules has been daunting and might take longer that previously thought. (Does this mean that the July 1st start date might get pushed back?) At that point, The Old H**p Farmer realized he wasn’t going to get any hard answers, because there weren’t any. So slowly the conversation changed into an interview. My first question was, that as the Tennessee Cannabis Director, what were her priorities? Patricia said that coming from the food/kitchen department of the TDA, it made her acutely aware of the need for consumer protection. Ms. Hart stated that it’s paramount for people to know that their Cannabis products are safe and that edibles are what they say they are and made in a certified kitchen. The second thing, Ms. Hart stressed, was that she felt that is was important that Tennessee Cannabis farmers and processors would thrive and have a viable industry. Madam Director also expressed her hope that new Farm Bill would give a little more leeway for H**p farmers to grow for Cannabinoids. When I asked Patricia about the future of Cannabis in Tennessee in 3 three years, Ms. Hart wasn’t really sure but she was going to try and make that future as bright as possible. As The Old H**p Farmer started to finish his cup of coffee and wind up our very pleasant conversation, Cannabis Director Hart wanted to stress that the TDA wanted as much dialogue as possible as they firm up the rules of the road and encouraged those with questions to send them by email to [email protected] and they would respond as soon as they are able. So folks, if you got questions and observation about Cannabis Regulations in Tennessee, go to the source. Anyway as always, H**p Dawgs and H**p Puppies keep one eye on the weather and the other eye on the market.
Visit our Tennessee homegrown web site to try our great products: https://www.tnhomegrown.com
The Wife's web site: https://www.theoldhempfarmerswife.com
Our Podcast - Full Contact Cannabis: https://fullcontactcannabis.podbean.com
