Kansas Hemp Stories: Kansas Is Becoming A Hemp Powerhouse (Again)

Episode 47 July 21, 2020 00:36:14
Kansas Hemp Stories: Kansas Is Becoming A Hemp Powerhouse (Again)
The Ministry of Hemp Podcast
Kansas Hemp Stories: Kansas Is Becoming A Hemp Powerhouse (Again)

Jul 21 2020 | 00:36:14

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Show Notes

Today we’re checking in with a newer state on the hemp scene: Kansas.

As we’ve covered before, Kansas was once a powerhouse of hemp growing … so powerful that the state struggled for years with wild hemp growing all over during the era when the plant was illegal. Now that it’s legal again, the “Sunflower State” is quickly becoming a thriving hemp state too.

In this episode of the Ministry of Hemp podast, our host Matt talks about Robert Downy Jr’s new training center on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood and the Hemp Wool insulation they used to rehab the old building courtesy of our friends at Hempitecture. Check out Matt’s conversation with Mattie Meede from Hempitecture in this previous episode.

After that Matt has a conversation with Kelly Rippel about the state of hemp in Kansas. They talk about Kansas’ hemp history, new bills coming to the ballot to improve industrial hemp production and the difficulties of dealing with bad info and opinions coming from the opposition.

Editor’s Note: After we published this episode, Kelly sent over a few corrections via Twitter, including a correction that Kansas led the nation in bushels per acre of hemp produced in 1863 rather than 1865. Here’s a copy of the 1863 USDA crop report:

About Kelly Rippel

Kelly is the Business developer of KS based Medicine Man Pharms and The Farmacy. He serves as an advisor on the Hemp Economic Development Group (HEDG) and the Kansas Cannabis Business Association (KSCBA). Kelly is the co-founder and vice president of Kansans for Hemp and the founding president of the Planted Association of Kansas. To say he’s busy fighting for hemp in Kansas is a bit of an understatement.

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A three part image in a grid, showing a fancy hemp bud, Kelly Rippel speaking at a podium, and the leaves of wild-growing cannabis plants in Kansas.Kelly Rippel (top right) is one of the leading hemp advocates in hemp. Also pictured: A sample of high CBD hemp flower from Kelly’s Medicine Man Pharms (top left) and some wild growing cannabis plants in Kansas (bottom).

Kansas hemp stories: Complete episode transcript

Below you’ll find the complete transcript of episode 47 of the Ministry of Hemp Podcast, “Kansas hemp stories”:

Matt Baum:
I’m Matt Baum, and this is the Ministry of Hemp podcast brought to you by ministryofhemp.com, America’s leading advocate for hemp and hemp education.

Matt Baum:
Welcome back to the Ministry of Hemp podcast. I’m your host, Matt Baum. And today on the show, we’re going to talk about Kansas. We’ve highlighted several other States, mainly Colorado, some Texas here and there, a lot of Kentucky, but we don’t hear about Kansas very often. So I found the perfect person to check in with, his name is Kelly Rippel. He is the vice president of the Kansas Industrial Hemp Advisory Board. But as you are going to hear in our discussion, he’s doing a lot more than that too. Kelly is a busy guy and he’s been fighting for hemp for years. Really excited for you guys to hear this conversation. But first, let’s get just about as far away from Kansas as we can in the United States and talk about California for a moment specifically, Hollywood.

Robert Downey, Jr.’s new use for hemp

Matt Baum:
You may know him better as Iron Man, but Robert Downey, Jr. has just been a part of the first hemp wool installation in a building in the United States. Now hemp wool is insulation made from hemp, but unlike fiberglass insulation, you can literally just grab it with your hands. No worries, no rashes. It’s not going to get into your skin. It’s a lot safer, easier to make. And it’s made out of hemp. The building is being turned into a training center for Downey, Jr., and undoubtedly other megastars, where they can work out and get pumped up for new roles. It was an old building called doc ski and sports, and they basically rehabbed this building, and Downey, Jr. was looking to reduce his carbon footprint by introducing hemp wool into the project. Back in episode 26 of this podcast, I spoke with Maddie Mead from Hempitecture, and Hempitecture was the firm that actually worked on this and helped install the hemp wool.

Matt Baum:
Back in February, the HEPA texture team visited the site of this commercial renovation project on Santa Monica Boulevard in LA and they worked with Downey’s subcontractors, teaching them the tools of the trade to successfully install hemp wool. And they loved it. Apparently, it was super easy to use. Like I said, it doesn’t bother anyone’s skin, so you don’t have to wear weird gloves. You just tack it up and it does the job. We’re going to be hearing a lot more about hemp wool in the near future, I’m sure, because it really is a revolutionary product. And it’s fantastic to use a product like this to rehab an old building, to offset poor construction in the past with new improved and better products that are better for the environment. Check out episode 26 of this podcast to hear more about hempcrete, hemp insulation and the firm that worked with Robert Downey, Jr. hemp a texture.

Meet Kelly Rippel, Kansas hemp advocate

Matt Baum:
My conversation on the show today is with Kelly Rippel, the vice president of the Kansas Industrial Hemp Advisory Board. But that’s not all. He’s also worked on the latest Kansas Safe Access Act SB187, which they’re trying to get onto the ballot right now that’s going to allow patients access medical cannabis through protected administration from licensed medical professionals. And he’s also the cofounder of Kansans For Hemp, which is working to pass legislation to reintroduce industrial hemp for Kansas farmers. He’s also the business developer for Medicine Man Farms, a Kansas based CBD company. So he might have more hemp knowledge than anyone I have encountered on this show. Here’s my conversation with Kelly Rippel.

Matt Baum:
Kelly, welcome to the Ministry of Health podcast. Now I did a little bit of background digging on you and you have been neck deep in hemp for a very long time. I got to know, how does this start? How does a Kansas boy decide, you know what? I’m not so into farming, but I am behind hemp? How did this happen?

Kelly Rippel:
Well, first of all, I thank you so much for having me. And the story goes back to in the early nineties, when I was going through middle school and we had dare class and I would come home from dare class, I asked my parents-

Matt Baum:
Oh, yeah. I remember dare. I never used drugs again. It totally worked. I never touched them.

Kelly Rippel:
Flawless, flawless. I came home and I asked my parents, “What do you know about this plant, marijuana that we keep hearing about?” And my dad said, “Well, as a matter of fact, I was involved in some research at Kansas State University in the 1970s,” which is America’s first land grant university. And he said, “One of the things we studied was the best ways to kill,” what they thought was, “marijuana.” Come to find out, it was actually hemp.

Matt Baum:
I was reading about this. And when I found you, I found this on Medium, you had written about this. So Kansas had a full on hemp extermination program, basically where they were like … Who founded this? Was it the farmers? Was it the government and who carried out the mass extermination?

Kelly Rippel:
Unfortunately, the government was involved, of course, because at that time this was the same era that the Controlled Substance Act came out. But that was in 1970, of course, but these studies were conducted in the late sixties, early seventies. So it was happening all at the same time. And what I found out in 2017 when I actually uncovered those full text documents at K State, which are not open access information, those studies were funded by Eli Lilly, which is a global pharmaceutical conglomerate.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. That’s a name that pops up a lot when we start talking about this history.

Kelly Rippel:
Yes. And as many people know, they formulated and sold cannabis derived medical products in the early 1900 in the US, so they knew benefits. They knew that there were really productive components of the cannabis plant in general, and they did what they could to eliminate that competition. And ultimately, it was really interesting that these studies both … they studied the cannabinoid profiles and how they fluctuate in Kansas over time, they studied the germination rate and the growth cycles over time, and then-

Matt Baum:
This is pretty groundbreaking stuff. This was stuff that hadn’t been done.

Kelly Rippel:
It was early studies. Raphael Meshulum had not identified THC and synthesized cannabinoids just a few years prior. So it really was groundbreaking. But my father was a volunteer student and he was earning his biology degree and he had farming backgrounds and they strapped canisters of 24D to their backs and walked farmers plots. And they tried burning. They tried infesting it. They tried insecticides, pesticides, all these different types of chemicals and the things they found out was it comes back.

Matt Baum:
Yeah, it’s a weed. You can’t kill it. So this pharmaceutical company comes to the state of Kansas under the guise of, “We need to eliminate this horrible menace of a plant marijuana. It’s a nightmare. It ruins lives. It kills everyone. We need you, agriculture college, to come up with an effective way to kill it,” and they stuck backpacks on students and sent them out into the fields?

Kelly Rippel:
Yeah. And of course, now we know that the 24D was phased out. I think it is still somewhat in use, but it has been tied to a lot of issues, health concerns.

Matt Baum:
This seems so amazingly irresponsible

Kelly Rippel:
Very much though.

Matt Baum:
You think about things like solidimide, which was happening around the same time. So people were aware that there are dangerous chemicals involved here. Was it the state that decided to do this, or the college just went along with it because it was a grant and they were like, “Sure, let’s do this study”?

Kelly Rippel:
There was a grant involved with it. And yes, it was from Eli Lilly and company and Allanco manufacturing. Those companies actually still fund research at K State. And they do likely elsewhere as well. And that was one of the things that I realized when I discovered this information is that this likely is not an isolated incident.

Matt Baum:
Oh, I’m sure.

Kelly Rippel:
There needs to be a concerted effort in trying to identify within each university and archives if these types of studies happened in other States, because if they did, that tells a lot bigger story than what we really know, and-

Matt Baum:
That’s conspiracy at that point, basically. Full-on conspiracy.

Kelly Rippel:
The other part of this is these studies were overseen by the Marijuana Control Commission, which was under the guise of Governor Docking at that time in Kansas. And so law enforcement was involved and there’s just a lot of conflicts of interest involved with these studies that wouldn’t fly today.

Matt Baum:
It’s funny how that always pops up is that there’s always an odd conflict of interest. But I agree with you. I find it very hard to believe that there weren’t similar studies like this that happened at Nebraska, Missouri, North Dakota State, any of these ag colleges. I bet they were all over the Midwest because that’s where the stuff was grown.

Kelly Rippel:
Right. And it was very interesting. And like you said, this was some groundbreaking research they did because they mapped where it originated in the Northeastern corner, along the Missouri river. And it spread throughout the state. It was really some in depth and comprehensive data that they collected, and Kansas is known for very comprehensive data, just in general. So it’s pretty fascinating to see this information

From ‘Hemp For Victory’ to ‘invasive species’

Matt Baum:
Let’s go back before they started the mass extermination, why Kansas? Was Kansas hemp hotbed, or we all basically I’ve come to think of Kentucky as the original hemp producer in the United States. But it sounds like before this, Kansas was producing quite a bit of hemp.

Kelly Rippel:
We were. Of course, we had the Hemp for Victory movement and Kansas farmers were encouraged and paid to grow hemp for the war movement during World War II. Prior to that, though, there is a lot of theory, and I’m sure we will with scientific advancements and genomic testing, that we will be able to identify that cannabis was indigenous to Kansas. We didn’t introduce it here.

Matt Baum:
That’s another thing I wanted to ask you about. A lot of these reports, they called it an “invasive species” and tried to say it came from Asia, or it came from South America, but there are … I don’t know about hardcore records, but there’s definitely records that sound like when colonists came here, Native Americans were already growing hemp. It was here.

Kelly Rippel:
Exactly. And they were in South America and in Central America and what is now Mexico. Though, the indigenous peoples there, they were utilizing cannabis for a myriad of purposes and reasons and benefits. And yes, my understanding is when the Spanish came and “settled,” they introduced hemp, the fibrous variety, because they needed indigenous peoples to grow fibrous varieties for sales and [inaudible 00:12:46] so they can then ship goods back to Europe and other countries

Matt Baum:
With the whole idea of labeling him as invasive, is that just come down to more of the racist rhetoric that was behind the Marijuana Control Act and stuff, or?

Kelly Rippel:
That’s part of it. My understanding is that yes, anti-immigration and ultimately racism and discrimination, bigotry, those were of course, very strong components of prohibiting cannabis in general. However, as we also know, it’s the corporate exclusivity that really forced the laws to change because we had, of course, William Randolph Hearst, Harry Anslinger, it was the combination of these multi factors that prohibited it-

Matt Baum:
The paper guys, the cotton guys and the pharmaceutical guys.

Kelly Rippel:
Exactly.

Matt Baum:
So we mentioned Lily, and you said Lilly, who had already been dealing in hemp derived and cannabis derived pharmaceuticals when this takes place and they’re killing this all off, they have their own private hemp fields where they’re still growing this? Where they’re still working this?

Kelly Rippel:
That I don’t know.

Matt Baum:
Because that runs really deep at that point. That’s where we could be like, “Okay, these guys are criminals, goddammit!”

Kelly Rippel:
Yeah. There’s just a lot of unanswered questions, and that’s why I’ve been so fascinated with trying to understand where we came from and why we’re in the situation we are, because it didn’t just happen. There were multiple concerted efforts to be able to limit what we know as cannabis.

Matt Baum:
I was going to say, it did just happen because one day somebody went, “Hey, there’s more money in making this just happen than letting it go on.” You know what I mean? And the more you dig, it shouldn’t be shocking that money and government and major corporations are all tied very close together. It’s just so crazy when we look back at the history of this, and it happened in every state, literally every state, it’s easy to say, “Well, it hit this state the hardest because they were growing the most or whatever,” but even Nebraska had a history of this that I didn’t know about and digging into it blows my mind.

Kelly Rippel:
Absolutely. Kansas also has a pretty unique history regarding prohibition, just in general. We’re the state of Kerry Nation and we’re also the free state. There’s just a lot of intersecting motives and intents that happened in Kansas.

Kansas and the War on Drugs

Matt Baum:
For a long time, and when I say a long time, I mean like 30 or 40 years, Kansas is completely prohibitive on this, wants nothing to do with it. And at that same time, I remember there was a book that came out, I want to say, late nineties, probably late nineties, early 2000s, “What is the Deal with Kansas?” And it was all about how puritanical and conservative Kansas had become, going from a relatively liberal democratic state to just swinging as far right as possible. And you had massive, crazy prosecutions for marijuana. People thrown in prison, like the same that they would be for crack cocaine and whatnot. And now you guys, somehow Kansas has a legalized marijuana for a medical marijuana law, and Nebraska does not. What happened? I don’t understand.

Kelly Rippel:
So actually, Kansas is one of the final four to not legalize. And Nebraska is on the books to vote. And so they’re actually a little bit further ahead than we are right now.

Matt Baum:
We do have a vote coming. We’ll see.

Kelly Rippel:
Yeah, I hope that it happens in Nebraska. They need it there, just like they do anywhere else. But the bottom line is with being surrounded a hundred percent, the lawmakers in Kansas are going to be up against a lot of pressure, and they already have been. But to know that we are literally just exporting goods and money, revenue, all of this, it will have to stop eventually. And we can’t continue down that path.

Matt Baum:
It seems very similar to a lot of the arguments that people had about gambling in States where the neighboring state would have casinos, and we don’t, we’re just losing all that money, but we’re talking about the bread basket of America here and now farmers can’t make the money they used to on wheat, on soy, on corn, on any of this stuff. But hemp and marijuana, especially all of a sudden farmers are seeing this and going, “Why aren’t we doing something with this?” There’s still a lot of ideas about it’s a drug and it’s bad, and there’s old ideas based on that, but I think there’s also more clarity now, how has Kansas changed? How have you seen it change in your lifetime? Because you grew up around the same time I did where we went through dare and now Kansas is looking at legalizing hemp for industrial usage and whatnot. Was this gradual? Have you guys been fighting the whole time? How did this change?

Kelly Rippel:
That’s a great question. There has been a coalition in Kansas working over 10 years now on getting medicinal cannabis legalized. And it was in that movement that I identified that I really needed to branch out and say, “Look, we need industrial hemp here.” Not more than anything, but for an ag based state like Kansas … Kansas is ranked number three in the nation in regards to farmable acreage per capita. Our economy is driven by agriculture. And so you’re right when you’ve got markets that are tanking and have continuously gone down and farmers at the same time are paying more for their inputs for their acreage, it’s not a good combination.

Kelly Rippel:
And farmers have been suffering I think for quite a while, for several years. Of course, we had a horrible drought in 2012. And from that, there’s been a big effort of conservation and saving water and saving the aquifer and getting into regen ag and soil health and all of this. So there’ve been some really positive steps made to help mitigate a lot of the damage that’s been done to monoculture ultimately. I’ve spoken to farmers out in Western Kansas that said we should have never introduced corn to Kansas because it’s so water intensive.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. Same in Nebraska. We became the corn husker state. And now we have a desert in our panhandle because of it. It’s crazy.

Kelly Rippel:
It is and the thing about it is the majority of that corn, if not all of it, at least grown in Kansas, isn’t going to feed people. It’s going to animal feed, and ethanol, which we know is a very expensive process for biofuel. It has been interesting to be able to go around the state. One of the really fortunate opportunities I had early on with Kansas for hemp was we went around the state and we sat in the room with farmers. We answered their questions and heard their concerns about what this might mean to reintroduced another crop. And we took that information back. I provided testimony in the state house and I was working with lobbyists and coalitions for industrial hemp, and we got it passed. Once you have the crucial conversations and you are able to answer people’s concerns legitimately, they see the different side of things. And I think that’s been the paradigm shift over time.

(Re)legalizing hemp in Kansas

Matt Baum:
Did the history help at all? Were you in those conversations? Did you go back and say, “Hey, look, we were growing this not long ago.” I’m not talking about even cowboy and Indian years, we’re talking about 50, 60 years ago.

Kelly Rippel:
Yes. Oh, absolutely. We pulled out all the stops. And I think that’s how we got it done. And of course, power in numbers. That’s how it happened. That’s how you influence especially lawmakers. And once they see the economic side of things, especially, but at the same time, we’ve got these a handful of representatives from law enforcement agencies, for example. We know that their job is crucial. They are there protecting our cities and serving our communities. And we feel like this is a perfect opportunity for them to help rebuild their constituency. But at the same time, we’ve seen some lobbyists that are representing agencies that don’t really have a full understanding of perhaps how their forces consider cannabis or hemp for that matter.

Matt Baum:
That is way more polite than I would have put it by the way, but I totally hear you.

Kelly Rippel:
We’re still hearing testimonies such as, “Well, if Kansas allows medical cannabis, it’s going to make the state fall into mediocrity.” And it’s just these types of arguments don’t hold weight. They just don’t.

Matt Baum:
You remember when Elvis created rock and roll, then we just became a nation of sodomites and monsters. It’s this old ridiculous thinking where you don’t understand it’s already here. It is more pervasive now, and you are aiding a black market. That’s all you are doing with these ridiculous arguments. And obviously this is a show about hemp, but I feel like it is impossible to talk about hemp without talking about marijuana or cannabis as well. And one of the biggest things that’s holding Nebraska back right now from industrial hemp is our governor thinks marijuana is right up there with heroin. You smoked marijuana and then you’re on PCP two days later, and then you’re getting shot 16 times while you are running at the cops. And it’s just that insane thinking.

Matt Baum:
You had mentioned how we’ve got it on the ballot that we have a governor we voted to get rid of the death penalty. And our governor said, “No,” and put it back in action. The people voted. So what happens when we vote and say, “Yes, we want medical marijuana use in Nebraska.” He can say, “No. Veto. Sorry, won’t do it.” And the farmers want this. That’s what’s blowing my mind, is that the farmers need help. And the state is not helping them, but they continue to vote for people that will hurt their own cause for reasons like you said, fear the state will fall into mediocrity. What does that even mean?

Matt Baum:
I would Demand a definition of that. Mediocrity? We’re Kansas. There were already a fly over state for most people. Give me a break. You were part of putting together this idea of legalizing medical marijuana in Kansas as well, right?

Kelly Rippel:
I have been helping the movement here and I now advise the Kansas Cannabis Business Association as well. I was also fortunate to, to help coauthor a bill that was introduced last year.

Matt Baum:
I saw that.

Kelly Rippel:
Unfortunately there have been a lot of political games that people are playing and that’s why nothing happened last year, but we’ve got a pretty strong momentum going into this next session. So we’re hoping that we’re going to get it done in 2021.

Matt Baum:
That’s excellent. And what’s the temperature feel like? It sounds like the populace is behind this and it sounds like Kansas is no longer the completely right wing conservative state that it used to be. In fact, from what I’ve heard, Kansas in actually considered in play this year and maybe it’s just because the current administration has been so awful. I don’t know. The political landscape, has it gotten easier to navigate? Are you dealing with just a few bumps in the road at this point?

Kelly Rippel:
Yeah. It’s definitely an interesting environment-

Matt Baum:
A sigh like that is never good by the way. It’s never followed by a happy story.

Kelly Rippel:
I will say that we’re seeing some major changes, and it’s happening on all levels of state government, of nonprofit organizations, of people who are operating in the state, as well as businesses wanting to come to Kansas. I’ve spoken with a couple of different big players that would love to come here. And if things were a little bit different policy wise, they may make the move. And yeah, we do have some, I guess folks, we’ll say ultra conservative people. And what we’ve seen from the federal side is there’s a lot of divisiveness just in general in politics right now.

Kelly Rippel:
And Kansas is not immune to that. No state is immune to that, but there is this sort of comradery that I’ve seen lawmakers follow through with because we have to work together to make things happen. That’s the way things work. And I actually have also a unique perspective about the state house, because having grown up into Topeka, I spent a lot of my formative years in the state house because my mother was the executive assistant to four different Senate presidents. And so I understand, and also very much appreciate the work that policy makers and grassroots advocate movements do. And-

Matt Baum:
You didn’t have a chance. This started for you at a very young age. And it was all over like, “Oh, I guess I’m a freedom fighter. Here we go.”

Kelly Rippel:
It’s in my blood.

Matt Baum:
There you go. If mom and dad were rodeo clowns, you’d be poking out of a barrel right now.

Matt Baum:
So what’s the-

Kelly Rippel:
No, it’s …

Matt Baum:
I’m sorry. Go ahead. Please finish.

Kelly Rippel:
No, I was just going to say this coming election is going to be very, very interesting because I think we are going to see some seats flipped, both in the house and the Senate-

Matt Baum:
Without a doubt.

Changing attitudes & laws about cannabis

Kelly Rippel:
Traditionally, our Kansas legislature has been very conservative, but it has gone back and forth throughout the years. And it also is reflective of the governorship and the administration. But yeah, we’re seeing some great movement. And I will also say that there was a political poll that just came out recently and there is some strong candidates that are coming into the folds here in November. And we’re also seeing a shift with people who are running for reelection because they know … There was a study done in 2019, over 76% of Kansans believe that medical cannabis should be legalized. There’s no party. This isn’t black, this isn’t red or blue. It’s bi-partisan.

Matt Baum:
That’s more than three quarters of the state. Now, which side of that argument should you be on if you want to get elected? I can’t do that math, but it seems like the big number is the good one, right? This is the stuff that blows my mind. And as far as industrial hemp goes, you guys are producing now. Kansas is an industrial hemp state.

Kelly Rippel:
This is true. The bill was passed in 2018. 2019 was the first year that we were able to cultivate, of course, under the guise of the Kansas Department of Ag and the research program, which I was appointed to. And I sat on the Industrial Hemp Research Advisory Board under the Department of Ag. I was appointed by Secretary McClaskey and then I was reappointed by Secretary Mike Beam. And that experience was so influential to me because I got to see how that program worked. And I was part of the group that got to review all the licenses and we approved the licenses. I will say that 2020, we did decrease in licenses. And I think every state did for multiple reasons. But the Kansas Department of Ag did submit a commercial hemp program to USDA. It was approved. And now we’re just in this holding pattern until the legislature enacts it. And at that point, we will venture down the path of a commercial program.

Matt Baum:
That’s excellent. And hopefully by then, there’s going to be more companies that are making fabrics, that are making plastic polymers, that are making hempcrete and whatnot, because there is so much money here. And again, like we said earlier, it’s a weed. It grows really easily. It doesn’t need the water. It doesn’t need as many of the chemical compounds that keep pests away and whatnot. This is a win-win. And I hope Kansas figures it out. I hope Nebraska does too. Right now, the Midwest, we’re supposed to be doing this. This is what we’re supposed to be doing. And I’m glad that we have freedom fighters like you out there. But again, it sounds like you’ve had no choice. It sounds like you were born into this cult.

Kelly Rippel:
Well, I appreciate that. And it’s been an expansion of course, and I’m so thrilled to be involved with this movement in multiple ways. And the fact that we have groups now such as the Midwest Hemp Council and Ministry of Hemp and all of these … Oregon, the US Hemp Roundtable. And I now sit on the advisory board of the Hemp Economic Development Group, which was just formed based out of Chicago. And we’re going to see some pretty exciting things happen within the next few months and years.

Matt Baum:
That’s awesome. How many groups you’re on now? I think you’ve mentioned 20 so far. You have free time, right? You stop every once in a while.

Kelly Rippel:
I try. Yeah, it’s a handful.

Matt Baum:
Kelly, thanks again for joining me, man. This was fantastic. And I find it really interesting just also coming from a fly over ag state, these battles being fought, how different it is here than it is in States like, even Kentucky or Oregon or California. Mind you, they’re all bogged down in their own government battles right now, but it seems like once we get this started, you will not be able to ignore the benefits and those voices that held everyone back, they are going to be on the wrong side of history here. And I hope people remember that.

Kelly Rippel:
I agree. And Kansas was the number one producer of hemp bushels per acre. And that was in 1865, I believe.

Matt Baum:
That’s a little while ago.

Kelly Rippel:
It was a while ago and our time is coming. It’s inevitable.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. I totally agree.

Matt Baum:
Huge. Thanks to Kelly for coming on the show. I love talking to people like that with so much passion and a serious mind for how to get this stuff done too. It’s amazing how many different groups this guy is working with. And of course I’ll have links to all of those in the show notes for this episode.

Final thoughts from Matt

Matt Baum:
Time to wrap things up on this episode, but there is still so much Ministry of Hemp stuff out there to keep you busy in the meantime. Head over to ministryofhemp.com and check out a couple of great articles we’ve got up right now. One is an update to our Vaping CBD Oil 101 article, which is fantastic because as you heard, if you paid attention to the show or read the news, for a while there, there was some scares with vaping cannabis. Again, this had nothing to do with CBD, but we still wanted to make sure here at the Ministry of Hemp, we check everything out and we’ve updated the article with some great information. Also, if you’re having trouble sleeping, we’ve got a really good review posted about Helios natural sleep drops. Check that one out too. I know I have had a lot of success with CBD and sleep recently. I’m a very light sleeper, and I find that if I dose before I go to bed, I have a real good night’s sleep.

Matt Baum:
Be sure to follow us on all of our social media /ministryofhemp @ministryofhemp. We’re always posting cool stuff. We’re always posting links to our new articles. And if you want to help us in finding new articles and writing new stuff, you can become a Ministry of Hemp insider over at Patreon. That’s Patreon/MinistryofHemp. It’ll get you access to early articles, Patreon exclusive articles, Patreon, exclusive podcast extras, like I’ve got a video of the Harney Brothers who I interviewed on our last episode, planting their hemp. And it’s actually a pretty funny video. It’s not quite as professional as a lot of the hemp farmers that I’ve talked to, but I think it’s really cool to see that you can just go out there, get your hands dirty and plant this stuff.

Matt Baum:
At the Ministry of Hemp, we believe that an accessible world is a better world for everybody, so we have a full written transcript of this episode in the show notes as well. Next time on the show, we are going to be talking about new hemp children’s book. You heard that right. It’s a children’s book about hemp. And I can’t wait to tell you all about it. Be sure to tune in.

Matt Baum:
But for now, I got to get out of here. And I like to end the show the same way every time by saying, remember to take care of yourself, take care of others and make good decisions will you? This is Matt Baum with the Ministry of Hemp signing off.

A three part image in a grid, showing a fancy hemp bud, Kelly Rippel speaking at a podium, and the leaves of wild-growing cannabis plants in Kansas.
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 00:00:00 I'm at balm. And this is the ministry of hemp podcast brought to you by ministry of hemp.com. America's leading advocate for him and hemp education. Welcome back to the ministry of hemp podcast. I'm your host, Matt balm. And today on the show, we're going to talk about Kansas. We've highlighted several other States, mainly Colorado, some Texas here and there, a lot of Kentucky, but we don't hear about Kansas very often. So I found the perfect person to check in with his name is Kelly ripple. He is the vice president of the Kansas industrial hemp advisory board. But as you are going to hear in our discussion, he's doing a lot more than that too. Kelly is a busy guy and he's been fighting for him for years. Really excited for you guys to hear this conversation. But first let's get just about as far away from Kansas as we can in the United States. Speaker 0 00:01:04 And talk about California for a moment specifically, Hollywood, you may know him better as iron man, but Robert Downey jr. Has just been a part of the first hemp wool installation in a building in the United States. Now hemp wool is insulation made from hemp, but unlike fiberglass insulation, you can literally just grab it with your hands. No worries, no rashes. It's not going to get into your skin. It's a lot safer, easier to make. And it's made out of hemp. The building is being turned into a training center for Downey jr, and undoubtedly other mega stars where they can work out and get pumped up for a new roles. It was an old building called doc ski and sports, and they basically rehabbed this building and Downey jr. Was looking to reduce his carbon footprint by introducing hemp wool into the project. Back in episode 26 of this podcast, I spoke with Maddie Mead from hemp, a texture and hemp texture was the firm that actually worked on this and helped install the hemp wool. Speaker 0 00:02:15 Back in February, the hemp texture team visited the site of this commercial renovation project on Santa Monica Boulevard in LA. And they worked with Downey subcontractors, teaching them the tools of the trade to successfully install hemp wool. And they loved it. Apparently it was super easy to use. Like I said, it doesn't bother anyone skin, so you don't have to wear weird gloves. You just tack it up. And it does the job. We're going to be hearing a lot more about hemp wool in the near future. I'm sure because it really is a revolutionary product. And it's fantastic to use a product like this, to rehab an old building, to offset poor construction in the past with new improved and better products that are better for the environment. Check out episode 26 of this podcast to hear more about hempcrete hemp insulation and the firm that worked with Robert Downey jr. Hemp, a texture. Speaker 0 00:03:11 My conversation on the show today is with Kelly ripple, the vice president of the Kansas industrial hemp advisory board. But that's not all, he's also worked on the latest Kansas safe access act as B one eight seven, which they're trying to get onto the ballot right now. That's going to allow patients access medical cannabis through protected administration from licensed medical professionals. And he's also the co founder of Kansans for him, which is working to pass legislation to reintroduce industrial hemp for Kansas farmers. He's also the business developer for medicine, man farms, a Kansas based CBD company. So he might have more hemp knowledge than anyone I have encountered on this show. Here's my conversation with Kelly ripple, Kelly, welcome to the ministry of health podcast. Now I did a little bit of background digging on you and you have been neck deep in hemp for a very long time. I got to know, how does this start? How does a Kansas boy decide? You know what? I'm not so into farming, but I am behind hemp. How did, how did this happen? Speaker 1 00:04:21 Well, I, uh, first of all, I thank you so much for having me. And the story goes back to in the early nineties, when I was, uh, going through middle school and we had dare class and I would come home from dare class, Speaker 0 00:04:41 Just drugs. Again, it totally worked. I never touched him Speaker 1 00:04:45 Flawless. I came home and I asked my parents, what do you know about this plant marijuana that we keep hearing about? And my dad said, well, as a matter of fact, I was involved in some research at Kansas state university in the 1970s, which is America's first land grant university. Right? And he said, one of the things we studied was the best ways to kill what they thought was marijuana come to find out. It was actually him. Speaker 0 00:05:20 I was reading about this. And when I found you, I found this on a medium, you had written about this. So Kansas had a full on hemp extermination program, basically where they were like, who, who founded this? Was it the farmers? Was it the government like it? And who carried out the mass extermination? Yeah, unfortunately the, Speaker 1 00:05:44 From it was involved. Um, of course, because at that time, you know, this was the same era that the controlled substance act came out. And that was in 1970, of course, but these studies were conducted in the late sixties and early seventies. So it was happening all at the same time. And what I found out, uh, in 2017 when I actually uncovered those full text documents at K state, which are not open access information, those studies were funded by Eli Lilly, which is a global pharmaceutical conglomerate. Speaker 2 00:06:17 Yeah. That's a name that pops up a lot when we start talking about this history. Speaker 1 00:06:21 Yes. And as many people know, they formulated and sold cannabis derived medical products in the early 19 hundreds in the U S so they were, they knew benefits. They knew that there were, um, that there were really productive, uh, components of the cannabis plant in general. And they did what they could to eliminate that competition. And ultimately, um, it was really interesting that these studies both, they studied the cannabinoid profiles and how they fluctuate in Kansas over time, they studied the germination rate and the, um, growth cycles over time, Speaker 2 00:07:02 Mean groundbreaking stuff. I mean, this was stuff, Speaker 1 00:07:06 It was early studies, uh, Raphael Meshulum had not identified THC and synthesize cannabinoids just a few months prior, a few years prior. So it was, it really was groundbreaking. But, uh, yeah, my father was a volunteer student and he was earning his biology degree and he had farming backgrounds and, uh, they strapped canisters of two, four D to their backs and walked farmer's plots. And, and they tried burning. They tried, uh, infesting it, they tried it, insecticides, pesticides, all these different types of chemicals and the things they found out was it, it comes back, it's a weed, you can't kill it. Speaker 2 00:07:52 So this pharmaceutical company comes to the state of Kansas under the guise of, we need to eliminate this horrible menace of a plant marijuana. It's a nightmare. It ruins lives. It kills everyone. We need you agriculture college to come up with a way, an effective way to kill it. And they stuck backpacks on students and said, Speaker 1 00:08:16 Put into the fields. Yeah. Which, and of course, now we know that the two, four D is, uh, it was, it was phased out. I think it is still somewhat in use, but, um, it has been tied to a lot of, uh, issues, you know, health concerns. And yeah, it's irresponsible very much though. Speaker 2 00:08:37 Things like solidimide, which was happening around the same time. So people were aware that there are dangerous chemicals involved here. This was it. The state that decided to do this, or the college just went along with it because it was a grant. And they were like, sure, let's do this study. Speaker 1 00:08:56 There was a grant involved with it. And yes, and it was, uh, from Eli Lilly and company and they, and Allanco manufacturing. Uh, those companies actually still fund research at, at K state and they do likely elsewhere as well. And that was one of the things that I realized when I discovered this information is that this likely is not an isolated incident. Oh, I'm sure there, there needs to be a concerted effort in trying to identify within each university and archives if these types of studies happened in other States, because if they did that kind of tells a lot bigger story than what we really know at that point, basically conspiracy. The other, the other part of this is these studies were overseen by the marijuana control commission, which was under the guise of governor docking at that time in Kansas. And so law enforcement was involved and there's just a lot of conflicts of interest involved with these studies that wouldn't fly today. Speaker 2 00:10:06 It's funny how that always pops up is that there's always like an odd conflict of interest, but I, I agree with you. I find it very hard to believe that their warrants, similar studies like this, that happened at Nebraska, Missouri, North Dakota state, any of these ag colleges, I bet they were all over the Midwest because that's why stuff was growing. Speaker 1 00:10:26 Right. And it was very interesting. And like you said, this was some groundbreaking research they did because they, they mapped where it originated in the Northeastern corner, along the Missouri river. And it spread throughout the state. I mean, it was really, it was some in depth in depth and comprehensive, uh, data that they collected and Kansas is known for, for very, uh, comprehensive data just in general. So it's it, it's pretty fascinating to see this, uh, this information Speaker 2 00:10:55 Let's go back before they started the mass extermination, why Kansas was Kansas hemp hotbed, or like we all basically I've come to think of Kentucky as the original, you know, hemp producer in the United States. But it sounds like before this Kansas was producing quite a bit of hemp, Speaker 1 00:11:15 We were, of course we had the hemp for victory movement and Kansas farmers were, uh, they were, they were encouraged and paid to grow hemp for the, the war movement during world war two. Prior to that though, um, there is a lot of theory and I'm sure, um, we will with scientific advancements and genomic testing, that we will be able to identify that cannabis was indigenous to Kansas. We didn't introduce it here. Speaker 2 00:11:46 One thing I wanted to ask you about a lot of these reports, they called it an invasive species and tried to say things like it came from Asia, or it came from South America, but there are, I mean, I don't know about hardcore records, but there's definitely records that sound like when colonists came here, native Americans were already growing hemp, it was here. Speaker 1 00:12:09 Exactly. And, and they were, they were in, in, in, uh, South America and in central American. And what is now Mexico though, the indigenous peoples there, they, they were utilizing cannabis for a myriad of purposes and reasons and benefits. And yes, when, uh, my understanding is when the Spanish came and, um, settled quote unquote settled, right. You know, they, they introduced hemp, the fibers variety because they needed indigenous peoples to grow fibrous righties for sales and ropes. So they can then ship goods back to Europe and other countries Speaker 2 00:12:52 With the whole idea of labeling labeling hemp as invasive is that just come down to like more of the racist rhetoric that was behind the marijuana control act and stuff, or Speaker 1 00:13:05 That's, that's part of it. Uh, my understanding is that yes, anti-immigration and ultimately racism and discrimination, bigotry, those were of course, very strong, uh, components of, of prohibiting cannabis in general. However, as we also know, it's the corporate exclusivity that really forced the laws to, um, to change because we had, of course, William Randolph, Hearst, Harry Anslinger, all of, you know, it was the combination of these factors, these multi, uh, you know, factors that, that prohibited it, Speaker 2 00:13:44 The paper guys, the cotton guys and the pharmaceutical guys. Exactly. So we mentioned Lily, and you said Lilly who had already been dealing in hemp, derived in cannabis, derived, you know, pharmaceuticals when this takes place and they're killing this all up. They have their own private Hempfield steel where they're still growing this. Speaker 1 00:14:05 Yeah. That I don't know, Speaker 2 00:14:06 That runs really deep at that point. That's where we could be like, okay, these guys are criminals. Goddammit. Speaker 1 00:14:15 Yeah. There's just a lot of unanswered questions. And that, that's kind of why I've been so fascinated with trying to understand where we came from and why we're in the situation we are, because it didn't just happen. There were, there were multiple concerted efforts to be able to limit what we know it cannabis. Speaker 2 00:14:34 I was going to say, it kind of did just happen because one day somebody went, Hey, there's more money in making this just happen than letting it go on. You know, that's true. You know what I mean? And the more you dig, then it shouldn't be shocking that money and government and major corporations are all tied, very close together. It's just so crazy when we look back at the history of this and it happened in every state, literally every state it's easy to say, well, it hit this state the hardest cause they were growing the most or whatever, but even Nebraska had a history of this that I didn't know about and digging into it blows my mind. Speaker 1 00:15:12 Absolutely. Um, you know, Kansas also has a pretty unique history regarding prohibition, just in general. We're, we're the, we're the state of Kerry nation. And, uh, and you know, we're also the free state. So that's, there's a, there's just a lot of, um, uh, intersecting, motives and intense, uh, that happened in Kansas Speaker 2 00:15:35 For a long time. And I mean, when I say a long time, I mean, like 30 or 40 years, Kansas is completely prohibitive on this, wants nothing to do with it. And at that same time, I remember there was a book that came out, I want to say, late nineties, probably late nineties, early two thousands. What is the problem? Or what is it, the deal with Kansas? And he was all about how puritanical and conservative Kansas had become from going from a relatively liberal, you know, democratic state to just swinging as far right as possible. And you had like massive, like crazy prosecutions for marijuana. People thrown in prison, like the same that they would be for crack cocaine and whatnot. And now you guys, somehow Kansas has a legalized marijuana for a medication, a medical marijuana law, and Nebraska does not what happened. I understand. Speaker 1 00:16:31 So actually can't Kansas. Um, Kansas is one of the final four to do not legalize in Nebraska is on the books to vote. And so they're actually a little bit further ahead than we are right now. We do have a vote. So we'll see. Yeah. And it'll be, I I'm, I, I hope that you, that it happens in Nebraska. They need it there just like they do anywhere else. But the bottom line is with, with being surrounded a hundred percent, the lawmakers in Kansas are going to be up, up against a lot of pressure and they already have been. But to know that we are literally just exporting goods and money revenue, all of this, uh, it it's, it will have to stop eventually. And we can't continue down that path. Speaker 2 00:17:23 He was very similar to a lot of the arguments that people had about gambling in States where the neighboring state would have casinos. And we don't, we're just losing all that money, but we're talking about the bread basket of America here and now farmers can't make the money they used to on wheat, on soy, on corn, on any of this stuff. But hemp and marijuana, especially all of a sudden farmers are seeing this and going, why aren't we doing something with this? You know, when you, now that the, I mean, there's still a lot of ideas about it's a drug and it's bad, and there's old ideas based on that. But I think there's also more clarity now, how has Kansas changed? I mean, you, how have you seen it change in your lifetime? Because you grew up around the same time I did where we went through dare and now Kansas is looking at, you know, legalizing hemp for industrial usage and whatnot. Was this gradual, have you guys been fighting the whole time? Speaker 1 00:18:22 How did this change? That's a great question. Um, there has been a coalition in Kansas working over 10 years now on getting medicinal cannabis legalized. And it was in that movement that I, I identified that I really needed to kind of branch out and say, look, we need industrial hemp here. Uh, not more than anything, but for an ag based state like Kansas, I mean, Kansas is ranked number three in the nation is in regards to farmable acreage per capita. So we, we were, I mean, our economy is driven by agriculture. And so you're right when you've got markets that are, are tanking and have continuously gone down, um, and farmers at the same time are paying more for their inputs for their, for their Anchorage. It's not a, it's not a good combination. And, um, farmers have been suffering, I think for quite a while, for several years, of course, we had a horrible drought in 2012. And from that, there's been a big effort of conservation and, and, uh, saving water and saving the aquifer and, uh, getting into Regene ag and soil health and all of this. So there've been some really positive, uh, steps made to, to help mitigate a lot of the damage that's been done to a monoculture ultimately, and I've, I've spoken to farmers out in Western Kansas that said, we should have never introduced corn to Kansas because it's so water intensive. Speaker 2 00:20:01 Yeah. Same in Nebraska. We became the corn Husker state. And now we have a desert in our panhandle because of it. Speaker 1 00:20:08 It isn't the thing about it is the majority of that corn, if not all of it, at least in grown in Kansas, isn't going to feed people. It's going to, it's going to animal feed and ethanol, which we know is a very expensive process for biofuel. So there, there, it has been interesting to be able to go around the state. One of the really fortunate opportunities I had early on with Kansas for hemp was we went around the state and we sat in the room with farmers. We answered their questions and heard their concerns about what this might mean to introduce or reintroduced to another crop. And, uh, we, we took that information back. Um, I provided testimony in the, in the state house and I've been, I was working with lobbyists and coalitions for industrial hemp and we got it passed. I mean, there's, once you have the crucial conversations and you are able to, to answer people's concerns, uh, legitimately, right. They see the different side of things. And, and I think that's been the paradigm shift over time. Did the history Speaker 2 00:21:17 Help at all? W were you in those conversations, did you go back and say, Hey, look, we were growing this not long ago. I'm not talking about, you know, even cowboy and Indian years, we're talking about 50, 60 years ago, Speaker 1 00:21:32 Right? Yes. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. We, we, uh, we pulled out all the stops and, um, and I think that's, that's how we got it done. And of course, you know, power in numbers. That's, that's how it happens. That's how you influence especially lawmakers. And once they see the economic side of things, um, especially, but at the same time, we've got these a couple, a handful of representatives from law enforcement agencies. For example, we know that that their job is crucial. They are, they're protecting our cities, um, and, and serving our communities. And we feel like this is a perfect opportunity for them to, to help rebuild their constituency. But, but at the same time, we've seen some lobbyists that are representing agencies that don't really have, um, uh, a full understanding of perhaps how their, their forces, um, consider cannabis or hemp for that matter. Speaker 2 00:22:35 They were more polite than I would have put it by the way, but I totally hear you. Speaker 1 00:22:41 We're still, we're still hearing testimonies such as well. If Kansas allows medical cannabis, it's going to make the state fall into mediocrity. Right. And it's just these types of arguments. Don't hold, hold, wait. They just, don't Speaker 2 00:22:58 You remember when Elvis created rock and roll, then, then we just, you know, became a nation of sodomites and monsters. You know, like it's this old ridiculous thinking where you don't understand it's already here. It is more pervasive now, and you are aiding a black market. That's all you are doing with these ridiculous arguments. And I mean, obviously this is a show about hemp, but I feel like it is impossible to talk about hemp without talking about marijuana or cannabis as well. And one of the biggest things that's holding Nebraska back right now from industrial hemp is our governor thinks marijuana is right up there with heroin. Like they, you know, you, you smoked marijuana and then you're on PCP two days later, and then you're getting shot 16 times while you are running at the cops. You know? And it's just that insane thinking. Speaker 2 00:23:48 You had mentioned how we've got it on the ballot that we have a governor. We voted to get rid of the death penalty. And our governor said no, and put it back in action. The people voted. So what happens when we vote and say, yes, we want medical marijuana use in Nebraska. He can say no veto, sorry, won't do it. And the farmers want this. That's what's blowing my mind. Is it? The farmers need help. And the state is not helping them, but they continue to vote for people that will hurt their own. Cause for reasons, like you said, fear, the state will fall into mediocrity. What does that even mean? What does that get? I would demand a definition of that. Like mediocrity or Kansas, you know, there were already a fly over state for most people. Give me a break. You know, you were part of putting together this idea of legalizing medical marijuana in Kansas as well. Right. Speaker 1 00:24:48 I have been helping the movement here and I now advise the Kansas cannabis business association as well. So, um, yeah, and I, I was, I was also fortunate to, to help coauthor a bill that was introduced last year. You know, unfortunately there are, have been a lot of political games that people are playing and that's why nothing happened last year, but we've got a pretty strong momentum going into this next session. So we're hoping that we're going to get it done in 2021. That's excellent. Speaker 2 00:25:20 And what is it? What's the temperature feel like? I mean, it sounds like the populace is behind this and it sounds like this is no longer the completely right wing conservative state that it used to be. In fact, as from what I've heard, Kansas has actually considered, like in play this year. And maybe it's just because the current administration has been so awful. I don't know. It has the political landscape. Has it gotten easier to navigate? Are you dealing with, you know, just a few bumps in the road at this point? Yeah. It's a, it's a Speaker 1 00:25:54 Definitely an interesting environment Speaker 2 00:25:57 That is never good by the way. It's never followed by a happy story. Speaker 1 00:26:03 I will say that we're seeing some major changes and it's happening on all levels of, of state government, of, um, nonprofit organizations of people who are operating in the state as well as businesses wanting to come to Kansas. Um, I've spoken with a couple of different, uh, kind of big players that that would, what would love to come here. And if things were a little bit, uh, different policy-wise, they may make it, they may make the move. Um, and, and yeah, we do have some, I guess folks will say, you know, ultra conservative people and what we've seen, I guess a federal side is there's a lot of divisiveness just in general in politics right now. Sure. And Kansas is not immune to that. No state is immune to that, but there is this sort of, um, comradery that I I've seen lawmakers, um, follow through with, because we have to work together to make things happen. I mean, like that, that's the way things work. And I actually have kind of also a unique, um, perspective about the state house, because having grown up into Pika, I spent a lot of my formative years in the state house because my mother was the executive assistant to four different Senate presidents. Oh wow. And so I understand, and also very much appreciate the work that policy makers and grassroots advocate movements do. And yeah, Speaker 2 00:27:37 Didn't have a chance. This is like the started for you at a very young age and it was all over. Like, I guess I'm afraid of fighter. Here we go. Speaker 1 00:27:44 It's it's in my blood Speaker 2 00:27:46 Mom and dad are rodeo clowns. You'd be poking out of a barrel right now. You know? Speaker 1 00:27:52 So what's so, no, I'm sorry. Go ahead, please finish it. No, I was just going to say it's we're this coming election is going to be very, very interesting. Cause I think we are going to see some, some, uh, some seats flip both in the house and the Senate without a doubt. Traditional traditionally our Kansas legislature has, has been, um, very, very conservative and, uh, but it has gone back and forth throughout the years and it also is kind of reflective of the governorship and the restriction. Um, but yeah, there's, we're, we're seeing some great movement and I will also say that there was a political poll that just came out recently. Um, and there is some strong candidates that are coming into the fold here in November. And we're also seeing a shift with people who are running for reelection because they know, uh, there was a study done in 2019, over 76% of Kansans. Believe that medical cannabis should be legalized. So it's not there's, there's no, there's no party. This isn't bright, this isn't red or blue. It's all, it's, bi-partisan Speaker 2 00:28:58 More than three quarters of the state. Now, which side of that argument should you be on? If you want to get elected? I can't do that math, but it seems like the big number is the good one, right? This is the stuff that blows my mind. And as far as industrial hemp goes, you guys are producing. Now it's Kansas, isn't industrial. Speaker 1 00:29:17 This is true. Um, the bill was passed in 2018, 2019 was the first year that we were able to cultivate, of course, under the guise of the Kansas department of ag and the research program, which I was appointed to. And, uh, I was, I sat on the industrial hemp research advisory board under the department of ag. I was first, um, I was appointed by secretary McClaskey and then I was reappointed by secretary Mike beam. And that experience was so, so influential to me because I got to see how that program worked. And I was part of the group that got to review all the licenses and we approve the licenses. Um, I will say that 2020, we did a decrease in licenses and I think every state did for, for multiple reasons. But, uh, the Kansas department of ag did submit a commercial hemp program to USDA. It was approved. And now we're kind of just in this holding pattern until the legislature and accent. And, and at that point we will, uh, venture down the path of commercial of a commercial program. Speaker 2 00:30:36 And hopefully by then, there's going to be more companies that are making fabrics that are, you know, making plastic polymers that are making hemp, Crete and whatnot, because there is so much money here. And again, like we said earlier, it's a weed. It grows really easily. It doesn't need the water. It doesn't need as many of the chemical compounds to keep pests away and whatnot. It's just, this is a win win. And I hope Kansas figures it out. I hope Nebraska does too. Right now the Midwest we're supposed to be doing this. This is what we're supposed to be doing, you know? And I'm glad that we have freedom fighters like you out there. But again, it sounds like you had no choice. It sounds like you were born into this cult. Speaker 1 00:31:20 Well, I, I appreciate that. And I, I, you know, it's been an expansion of course, and I'm, um, I'm so thrilled to be involved with this movement in multiple ways. And the fact that we have groups now such as the Midwest tent council and, and ministry of hemp and you know, all of these Oregon, the U S raw hemp Roundtable. And I now sit on the advisory board of the hemp economic development group, which was just formed based out of Chicago. And we're going to see some pretty exciting things happen within, within the next few months and years. That's awesome. Speaker 2 00:31:54 The groups you're on now, I think you've mentioned 20 so far. You have free time, right? You stop every once in a while. Speaker 1 00:32:02 I try. Yeah. It's a handful, Speaker 2 00:32:05 Kelly. Thanks again for joining me, man. This was fantastic. And I, I find it really interesting just also coming from a fly over ag state, these battles being fought how different it is here than it is in States like even Kentucky or Oregon or California, who now mind you, they're all bogged down in their own kind of government battles right now. But it seems like once we get this started, you will not be able to ignore the benefits and those voices that held everyone back, they are going to be on the wrong of history here. Speaker 0 00:32:40 And I hope people remember Speaker 1 00:32:41 For that. I agree. Um, and you know, Kansas was the number one producer of, of hemp bushels per acre. And that was in 1865, I believe with a little while. So it was, it was a while ago and you know, our, our time, our time is coming, it's inevitable. Yeah, Speaker 0 00:33:01 I totally agree. Huge. Thanks to Kelly for coming on the show. I love talking to people like that with so much passion and a serious mind for how to get this stuff done too. It's amazing how many different groups this guy is working with. And of course, I'll have links to all of those in the show notes for this episode, time to wrap things up on this episode, but there is still so much ministry of hemp stuff out there to keep you busy. In the meantime, head over to ministry of hemp.com and check out a couple of great articles we've got up right now. One is an update to our vaping CBD oil, one Oh one article, which is fantastic because as you heard, if you paid attention to the show or read the news for a while, there, there was some scares with vaping cannabis. Speaker 0 00:34:06 Again, this had nothing to do with CBD, but we still wanted to make sure here are the ministry of him. We check everything out and we've updated the article with some great information. Also, if you're having trouble sleeping, we've got a really good review posted about Healist natural sleep drops. Check that one out too. I know I have had a lot of success with CBD and sleep recently. I'm a very light sleeper, and I find that if I dose, before I go to bed, I have a real good night's sleep. Be sure to follow us on all of our social media backslash ministry of hemp at ministry of hemp, we're always posting cool stuff. We're always posting links to our new articles. And if you want to help us in finding new articles and writing new stuff, you can become a ministry of hemp insider over at Patrion. Speaker 0 00:34:55 That's Patrion, backslash ministry of hemp. It'll get you access to early articles, patron, exclusive articles, patron, exclusive podcast extras. Like I've got a video of the Harney brothers who I interviewed on our last episode, planting their hemp. And it's actually a pretty funny video. It's not quite as professional as a lot of the hemp farmers that I've talked to, but I think it's really cool to see that. Yeah, you can just go out there, get your hands dirty and plant this stuff at the ministry of hemp. We believe that an accessible world is a better world for everybody. So we have a full written transcript of this episode in the show notes as well. Next time on the show, we are going to be talking about new hemp children's book. You heard that, right? It's a children's book about him. And I can't wait to tell you all about it. Be sure to tune in, but for now I gotta get outta here. And I like to end the show the same way every time by saying, remember to take care of yourself, take care of others and make good decisions will. Yeah, this is Matt balm with the ministry of him signing off.

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