Colorado state Sen. Don Coram on Friday announced a crowdfunding campaign that will draw ordinary investors into the hemp market – the first of its kind in Colorado.

The company, Paradox Pride, completed its first harvest of 10 acres of hemp just a few hours before the press conference. The plants will be processed into oils and other hemp-based products, according to Coram and other backers who spoke about the new crowdfunding venture at a state Capitol press conference.

Coram, a co-founder of Paradox, and a Montrose Republican, said he has been interested in pushing the issue since 2013, when he successfully co-sponsored legislation to legalize hemp production while he was in the House, along with then-state Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village. Two years later, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers sponsored a bill to allow state-authorized crowdfunding ventures.

“Since its passage in 2015, the Colorado Crowdfunding Act has not been utilized,” Coram said in a statement. “Paradox Ventures is a huge opportunity to see how this law will work.”

To get the 10 acres of hemp to market took about $300,000, which they’ve already raised, Coram said, but to expand the venture statewide and even nationally will take about $2 million, the maximum crowdfunding allowed under state law. The campaign’s initial goal is $500,000.

That first crop was nurtured by agronomist Gene Chuchuru, who grew the first batch of 42 mother plants in his bathtub. That eventually grew to more than 14,000 plants on 10 acres. Products that result from the hemp are being marketed by Ambary Gardens of Kittredge.

“We’re leading the nation in hemp production,” Coram said Friday. “It’s a new frontier, but it’s going to go extremely well.” Coram said he toyed with the idea of getting into hemp production a couple of years ago, but realized he didn’t know enough, and then turned to others on the growing and processing side, which led to Paradox Ventures, which he called a network for farmers to go from hemp seed to sales.  

Industrial hemp is required by law to contain less than three-tenths of one percent (0.03) of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. At that level, hemp is non-intoxicating and is used for a variety of products, including clothing, for animal and human consumption (food), plastics, even building materials.

The new venture will bring jobs to rural Colorado, Coram said. The first location is in the Nucla/Naturita area in western Montrose County, which is losing a Tri-State Generation and Transmission power plant this year and has already lost a coal mine, and the high paying jobs that go with both. The first round generated about 10 to 15 jobs, but those numbers can grow with involvement from area farmers, according to Paradox’s John Reams.

Former state Sen. Steve King, a Grand Junction Republican, said the crowdfunding campaign is about the next generation of farmers and consumers. This kind of program will help keep farmers on the farm, he said. “The Western Slope needs jobs. This is an important economic aspect” and one that will also encourage young people to stay on the farm.

Before the 2015 law, there were two sets of rules for investing, one for wealthy investors and another for small-scale investors, according to Karl Dakin, president of Invest Local Colorado, which is one of two state-authorized intermediaries that can help generate capital for a crowdfunding campaign. Under the 2015 law, small-scale investors can put up to $5,000 into a crowdfunding venture, and more if the investor is “accredited” under federal law.

“All 4.3 million citizens of Colorado can invest in this campaign,” Dakin said.

“If you’re going to put a company together, up until four or five years ago there were rules about who could invest,” said David Coker of Paradox. “We elected to go with a state-sanctioned crowdfunding which gives all of Colorado to say ‘we like this and want to be a part of it.'”