Minority Representation in Hemp: Giovan Jenkins & Steven Brown of Nothing But Hemp

Summary: How can we increase minority representation in the hemp industry? That’s the topic of episode 20 of the Ministry of Hemp Podcast. In this episode, our host Matt talks about a new report with good news about drug testing and CBD. Then Matt is joined by Giovan Jenkins and Steven Brown, the founders of Nothing But Hemp for a discussion about why there is so little minority representation in the hemp industry and their plan to change that. Also mentioned on the show: a recent report predicts $1 billion in CBD sales in 2019. (Article feature photo from Disabled And Here released under a Creative Commons Attribution License.) Send us your feedback We want to hear from you too. Send us your questions and you might hear them answered on future shows like this one! Send us your written questions to us on Twitter, Facebook, email matt@ministryofhemp.com, or call us and leave a message at 402-819-6417. Keep in mind, this phone number is for hemp questions only and any other inquiries for the Ministry of Hemp should be sent to info@ministryofhemp.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to the Ministry of Hemp Podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast app. If you really want to help us out, we’d love for you to rate or review the show. Giovan Jenkins of Nothing But Hemp poses with some of the company’s products. Why aren’t there more black people and minority representation in general in the hemp industry? (Facebook / Nothing But Hemp) Thanks again for listening! Contact sales@ministryofhemp.com if you’re interested in sponsoring our podcast or other content on our website. Minority Representation in Hemp: Complete episode transcript Below you’ll find the complete written transcript of this episode: Matt: 00:03 Minority representation is on the rise in just about every aspect of American business, except for the hemp industry. Today on this show, we’re going to talk about why at present, hemp is still a very much venture capitalist game in America and the USDA just handed down some new guidelines that no one is really happy about, but we’ll get to that in the next episode. Today we’re going to talk about why there isn’t more minority representation in the hemp business and what companies like Nothing But Hemp are doing to change that. My name is Matt Baum. I’m your host and this is the Ministry Of Hemp podcast. But before we get into that, let’s talk about drug tests for a minute. Drug tests and CBD Matt: 00:54 This month in the November edition of the journal of analytical toxicology researchers working with the Johns Hopkins University School Of Medicine published a study about the impact of CBD exposure on urine drug testing. Now, I’m bringing this up because a lot of you have called our phone line, (402) 819-6417, and asked us, “Is taking CBD going to get me in trouble in drug test?” It’s a valid question and the answer is still kind of yes and no, but it’s looking like it’s leaning towards no. Matt: 01:33 Here’s the good news. This latest study used human subjects that were using a hundred milligrams of CBD orally or through a vaporizer and when their urine samples were tested, only one of the 218 urine samples that were collected gave a positive result for THC and the one that did could be an outlier. Now there have also been some studies out there that show when CBD encounters acid, it can convert to THC, so by that logic, if you’re taking CBD orally, say in a pill form, sooner or later it’s going to encounter your stomach acid. The good news is, while scientists have seen this happen in lab settings, there have been no observations of this taking place in the human stomach. The final findings of this study basically said, “These data indicate that acute dosing of pure CBD will not result in posit