How a complicated regulatory landscape hurting startups selling food, clothes & wellness products made from hemp

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

sturdy ropes but its resin is a prohibited narcotic drug that can land you in jail? Startup companies who plunged into hemp, lured by its eco-friendly potential, are thrown by regulations that trip them at every step. Shalini and Jayanti Bhattacharya’s three-year-old company India Hemp and Co manufactures protein powder and cans of kombucha made with hemp seeds, but the sisters are at their wits’ end as they have been unable to sell their products on many ecommerce platforms. “It has been impossible to get the big ecommerce platforms to understand that hemp food products are approved by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and are different from hemp-based medicinal products that require a prescription from an ayurvedic doctor,” says an exasperated Jayanti.

Hemp gets a bad rap due to its infamous cousin marijuana. To make matters worse, they look somewhat alike. They both belong to the cannabis sativa family.

While marijuana plants are short and bushy with broad leaves, hemp is taller with thinner leaves that are concentrated at the top of the plant. But the crucial difference is in the quantum of a psychoactive compound called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which gives a high to those who smoke hashish or ganja. Industrial hemp has a low THC, less than 0.3%, while marijuana has a high THC, from 3% to 30%.

Hemp products shouldn’t give you a high. In the past decade, a clutch of direct-to-consumer brands has emerged selling food, clothes and wellness products that are made from different parts of the hemp plant, but the industry is struggling due to an inconsistent regulatory landscape and supply chain issues. In India, central and state laws regulate the cultivation of cannabis plants.