Not all cannabis farms are visited by a Columbia University professor. Fewer still are singled out as the best place on earth to grow the plant. That’s what happened when Colin Nuckolls, a professor of organic chemistry at Columbia and one of the most cited independent researchers on the chemistry of cannabis, visited Puro’s Kēkerengū farm on the Kaikōura Coast earlier this year.

Puro has been cultivating medicinal cannabis in Marlborough since 2018, building its model around outdoor, organically certified production at two sites in the region. Kēkerengū Farm is located on the coast with mountain protection to the west, and the company has long pointed to its environment, long hours of sunshine, ocean air flow, warm days, cool nights and vibrant soil as the foundation of the quality of its product. Nuckolls, whose research focuses on the chemical differences between indoor and sun-grown cannabis, came up with the tools to evaluate that claim. “If I had to pick one place in the world to grow sun-grown cannabis, this would be it,” he said.

© Cigar

The endorsement carries scientific weight, as Nuckolls’ work addresses a gap that standard cannabis testing can hardly cover. Certificates of analysis measure a defined set of cannabinoids and terpenes, meaning two products grown under completely different conditions can appear identical on paper. His research shows that the picture is more complicated than that. “Sunlight creates complexity in the plant,” he said. “Sun grown cannabis represents a wider spectrum of compounds, more terpenes, more nuances, more chemistry that people value.”

The mechanism is evolutionary. Natural sunlight provides a full and dynamic light spectrum, including UV exposure, that plants have adapted to over millennia. Controlled indoor environments, however sophisticated, replicate only part of that equation.

The Kēkerengū site drew a close comparison with Northern California’s Humboldt County, one of the world’s most respected cannabis-growing regions. The two locations are located at roughly mirror-image latitudes on opposite sides of the equator and share a mountainous coastal profile. “This place is where you’d want to grow cannabis, like Humboldt County,” he said. “It’s the coast, the air is fresh and it’s mountainous. Nature does a lot of work in these areas, the growing conditions are ideal.”

For Puro, the visit was an independent validation of the company’s production philosophy since its inception. Marlborough’s sunshine hours are among the highest in New Zealand, and combined with the microclimate factors of the site where the farm is located, factors Nuckolls described as conditions “that technology cannot reproduce”.

For more information:
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www.puro.co.nz

“The lawsuit is a diversionary tactic from Indy Vapes and Abilene Vape and CBD making a business decision to ignore state law.”

By Maya Smith, Kansas Reflector

Three smoke and vapor stores are suing the state of Kansas, alleging Fourth Amendment violations in some of the raids in October.

The plaintiffs have filed against KBI Director Tony Mattivi, Attorney General Kris Kobach (R), KBI agents, local law enforcement and county attorneys. They allege illegal search and seizure and defective warrants.

The KBI and local law enforcement raided smoke and vapor shops in Concordia, Independence, Abilene, McPherson, Pratt, Salina, Topeka and Wichita late last year.

They were organized with the intention of making networks end lax enforcement of Kansas’ anti-marijuana and anti-THC lawsKobach stated in the press conference during the attacks.

The lawsuit alleges that officials confiscated the hemp-derived products under Kansas law on warrants between legal and illegal hemp products.

Smoke and vape shops say the warrants were flawed by failing to recognize that the types of hemp-derived products are legal in Kansas, with Indy Vapes’ orders from Independence stating that all THC derivatives are contraband.

The Kansas Controlled Substances Act states that industrial hemp and hemp-derived products are legal and not controlled substances if they contain less than 0.3 percent THC. Plaintiffs allege that they sell legal hemp products and purchase those products from established wholesalers.

Kobach’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story.

The stores said they lost thousands of dollars in inventory and that the seized inventory was probably destroyed. Mattivi said in a press conference during the raids that the KBI had sent the products to the seized laboratories for private testing.

According to the lawsuit, agents told employees not to film, boarded up the windows from the inside, and disconnected the store’s internet and store security cameras.

“The lawsuit is a diversionary tactic since Indy Vapes and Abilene Vape and CBD made a business decision to ignore state law, and now they want to blame law enforcement for what they knew was the likely outcome,” according to a KBI statement. “We will uphold our responsibility to enforce the laws of Kansas.”

The KBI said the warrants executed by agents gave them the authority to seize illegal products and contraband. The statement did not address the officers interfering with the recording.

This story was first published by the Kansas Reflector.

Photo elements courtesy of the user rawpixel and Philip Steffan.

Over the decades, the legality of hemp cultivation in the United States has undergone some changes. In 1970, the Controlled Substances Act made the cultivation of hemp completely illegal, along with the definition of “hemp” as “marijuana.” This criminalized approach to hemp changed with the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed hemp from the definition of “marijuana” and allowed states to create their own hemp regulation programs. In the past year, there has been a change in hemp cultivation regulations at the state level, as well as a change in the federal legal definition of “hemp.” Both of these changes will likely affect hemp growers.

After passing the 2018 Farm Bill, the state of Ohio, through the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA), submitted its plan to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to regulate the cultivation and processing of hemp. In the spring of 2020, the ODA began accepting applications for the cultivation and processing of hemp.

as was shared in a blog post last summer, language included in the state operating budget passed in June 2025 gave up ODA’s authority to regulate hemp cultivation in the state. On July 25, 2025, the ODA began the process of transferring hemp cultivation regulation to the USDA. As of January 1, 2026, if you are growing hemp in Ohio, you must be licensed through the USDA, and all ODA cultivation licenses are revoked. The ODA continues to regulate hemp processors. ODA has a web page explaining these changes which is available here. For further reading, the state operating budget, HB 96, is available here.

Federal changes to the legal definition of “hemp.”
When hemp cultivation was legalized in the 2018 Farm Bill, Congress defined “hemp” as “Cannabis sativa L. plant and any part of that plant, including seeds and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers, whether or not grown, with a deltabin (THC)-9 tetrabin (THC)-9 tetrabin concentration in excess of 0.3 percent dry weight.” After passing the 2018 Farm Bill, however, Congress discovered that this definition of “hemp” created an unintended loophole. Although delta-9 THC is the main psychoactive compound found in both hemp and marijuana that can cause intoxication, it is not the only compound. Since legalization, hemp products have been sold that contain no more than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC, but contain other cannabinoids, such as delta-8 THC, that can cause intoxication if ingested.

To close this loophole to allow for intoxicating hemp products, Congress changed the definition of hemp in HR 5371, which became law on November 12, 2025. The federal definition of hemp is now “Cannabis sativa L. plant and any part of that plant, including its seeds and all derivatives, extracts, isomers, isomers, isomers, acids, salts, isomers, acids, salts, isomers and acids. Whether or not growing, with a total (THC) concentration (including tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA)) of more than 0.3 percent by dry weight.” As a result, instead of regulating only the amount of delta-9 THC, federal law now regulates the total THC concentration of hemp and its components. Thus, growers with hemp plants with a total THC concentration of more than 0.3 percent would be in violation of federal law. Importantly, this definition also applies to industrial hemp, or “hemp grown for use as seed stalk, whole grain, oil, cake, nut, hull, or any other non-cannabinoid derivative.” The new definition of hemp will go into effect one year after the law is signed, on November 12, 2026. The text of HR 5371 is available. here.

Source: The Ohio State University