Local ground-to-cannabinoid-supplement tailor Volunteer Botanicals will host the Free the Plant Tour fundraiser at Hop Springs Beer Park, Saturday, Oct. 9, to raise funds for the non-partisan, pro-hemp and pro-cannabis political action committee Tennessee Growers Coalition.
Free the Plant Tour is an open air, open invitation event to discuss Tennessee’s current cannabis legislation with the aim to gain ground for Tennessee’s businesses and private citizens alike to freely plant seeds.
Capping off the evening, “internationally-ignored superstar” funk-bucket Captain Midnight Band takes the Hop Springs stage for a ’70s-heavy dance party spectacle following the panel portions of Free the Plant Tour.
“Legalization is guaranteed to open up more jobs, new industries, new farming opportunities, new medicines, new fuels and new building materials unlike any plant before,” said Jason Pickle, co-founder of Volunteer Botanicals.
Through the combination of cannabinoid Sherpa Volunteer Botanicals and the Tennessee Growers Coalition, the upcoming Free the Plant Tour publicizes their observation that Tennessee legislators—those who write and approve Tennessee laws—need to address the regulatory cannabis laws hindering any state businesses from freely accessing fully integrated cannabis supply chains within our state to achieve their objectives and the desires of their customers. Event organizers openly invite Tennessee legislators to join the discussion Free the Plant Tour has created, on the grassroots level, at Hop Springs.
“The word cannabis encompasses both hemp and marijuana, the latter being a slang term assigned to cannabis in the early 1900s. The only difference is the Delta 9 THC content,” says Pickle.
Hemp plants normally do not contain illegal amounts of the cannabis plant’s natural psychoactive chemical component, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and are sought by developers for their structural fiber in order to create useful consumer products. (You may have heard folks say George Washington grew this kind of weed on his farm, but who knows, right?) However, “marijuana” plants, by stereotypical description, are the ones that may affect cannabis consumers’ behavior, in politics, business or a grocery market, due to the plant’s THC content. The gender of the plant, determined well after sprouting, has something to do with all that.
Pertaining to THC, chemical engineers around the country have isolated the exact isomer, Delta 9, within the chemical composition of cannabis. Several states’ laws are slow to reform pertaining to Delta 9, while other states and the federal government have not been. Chemical engineers can now remove or distort the illicit Delta 9 isomer in order to circumvent restrictive legalities in states such as Tennessee.
And, folks can grow hemp in Tennessee. Growers, sellers, handlers and merchants need to apply for specific agricultural licenses (and some not, depending on which stage of the plant’s ground-to-product journey the business focuses on) to do so in Tennessee, perfectly safe and free, aside from the license fees required by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. It’s when producers and merchants want to operate as close as possible to the illegal form of cannabis (trying to get the diet cola as close to the cola classic on a chemical-makeup level) that messes with people’s emotions, money and laws.
To clarify, Volunteer Botanicals does not chemically engineer any plants or forms of cannabis or cannabinoid products. They take pre-engineered, non-Delta 9-containing cannabis products, which are the popular CBD, CBC, CBG, Delta 8 (close to Delta 9, huh?), and, most recently, Delta 10 products, and convert them in versatile supplement formats, such as a powder. Volunteer then mixes and matches any and all of these supplemental forms, tailoring the finished product to their customers’ wants, according to Pickle.
At the Oct. 9 event, the folks from Volunteer Botanicals will discuss cannabis from various angles, intending to clarify common misconceptions about hemp and cannabis growth. Local businesses leaders and invited legislators will be there to help form, discuss and field any questions.
Venue doors open at 4 p.m. for the Free the Plant Tour’s pro-grow mission.
A legislators panel will follow at 5 p.m., where any and all local and state legislators are invited to weigh in on the plant’s growth in Tennessee.
From 6–8 p.m., speakers will hit on various different topics surrounding hemp, cannabis, building materials, skin care and safe consumption of the plant.
To wind things down, the evening gets to rock your socks with the hilarity and thumpy grooves of “waterbed rock ’n’ roll” purveyors Captain Midnight Band from 8–10 p.m. No words are a better description than their own, laying down “crunchy rock guitar riffs, thick R&B grooves and soaring vocal harmonies.”
There’s a recent jam of Captain Midnight Band’s on YouTube with fade cuts to Bob Romanus and Joey Ramone while the band is just funkin’ into it, sax and all.
The Free the Plant will also include area food trucks, vendors, games, a silent auction and learning zones for the kids. As always, Hop Springs is dog friendly.
More information and insight into Volunteer Botanicals’ products can be found at volunteerbotanicals.com. For more information about “hemp’s legislative voice” in Tennessee, the Tennessee Growers Coalition PAC, visit tngrowerscoalition.com. (A PAC is basically a bank account where political donations are collected, to be used for the advancement of a political movement or politician.)
Jason Pickle’s editorial from the September issue of the Murfreesboro Pulse can be found here.
Find resources and information on laws for growers, suppliers and merchants within Tennessee’s hemp industry at tn.gov/agriculture.
Hop Springs is located at 6790 John Bragg Hwy., Murfreesboro. Find them at hopspringstn.com. Organizers suggest a $10 admission donation for the Saturday, Oct. 9, event; free admission for veterans and kids.
“It’s time to let your representatives know. Call them. Email them. Call them again. Voice your concerns and passions on social media outlets and tag them,” adds Pickle.
