Hemp steals the show at CannaCon in Seattle

In Seattle, cannabis tends to mean marijuana.

But the star of this year’s Cannacon conference in Seattle is the cannaboid nobody parties with: hemp.

“Strain it right into the glass … look at that.”

This drink was made with water laced with just a little refined hemp oil.

Celebrity chef Cat Cora, like everyone else, calls it CBD. “That is so pretty. And you have a little CBD cocktail here.”

CBD won't get you high. But people at this trade show for the cannabis industry say it can help with pain, anxiety and healing.

And pure hemp CBD is now legal in all fifty states. (And must be truly pure to be legal.)

That's because on Dec. 20, the Trump administration's farm bill made it so.

Deborah Gestner, head of Greenleaf Golden, a company that sells hemp CBD.

“I remember: I was sitting with my bankers going ‘this is legal right now,’” Gestner said.

The bankers are waiting for the FDA to regulate hemp. That could open the floodgates to a huge industry.

Read the FDA’s lengthy statement about hemp

The connection between bankers and U.S. Food and Drug Administration is that banks won’t provide services to businesses they view as illegitimate, so FDA regulation would go a long way toward creating that legitimacy.

Gestner said the farm bill’s separation of hemp from marijuana is helping hemp get past the stigma that has clung to this sector.

At the same time, opioids, including opioids prescribed by doctors, are stigmatized because as a group they lead to much abuse and addiction.

“The stigma of opioids is greater than the stigma of cannabis,” she said.