*By Tracey Cheek* The cannabis industry enjoyed a productive 2018, but the government shutdown may be turning the industry's green light to yellow. Cannabis stocks are up overall, but according to Debra Borchardt, co-founder and CEO of Green Market Report, the government shutdown has left some farmers and companies in limbo. “When you think about the shutdown obviously there are people in very important jobs like the TSA and the Secret Service, so you would think cannabis is not so important, but we also have a lot of people that are depending on things that are now stalled because of this,” Borchardt told Cheddar Monday. In December, the federal government legalized recreational hemp with the passage of the 2018 farm bill. But those farmers eager to start growing are now unable to proceed with their plans. “The farmers that want to capitalize on this are stuck waiting for the Department of Agriculture to approve them for their applications to start growing hemp,” Borchardt said. “For them, they're in this limbo land waiting to get started.” In that limbo land, Borchardt said, background checks and approval can't be secured or processed. “Right now all they can do is file an application ー but there’s no one to process it.” Beyond the shutdown's impact on growers, the shutdown has potentially stymied a number of cannabis companies' plans to go public. “If you're a cannabis company and you're ready to go public and now all of a sudden you've been stalled, well that's affecting everything you’ve been trying to do. Your expansion plans and maybe even the companies that are waiting for you to expand," Borchardt said. For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-the-government-shutdown-can-hit-the-cannabis-industry).

Share:
More In Business
Goodyear Blimp at 100: ‘Floating Piece of Americana’ Still Thriving
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
Is U.S. Restaurants’ Breakfast Boom Contributing to High Egg Prices?
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
Trump Administration Shutters Consumer Protection Agency
The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down the agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought is the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama created it following the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
Load More