Two hand-sewn flags are flying over the state Capitol today – one for Old Glory and the other the state flag, both are made out of hemp,  an emerging, profitable industry for which our state leads the nation: hemp.

Colorado Politics was the first to report the Capitol-top commemoration and that both flags are made out of hemp, a valued product to our businessman-governor, Jared Polis, who, his fans might recall, flew a flag made of hemp over the U.S Capitol on the Fourth of July in 2013.

Margaret Eversole of Collbran made both flags to celebrate Colorado Hemp Week.

Colorado was the first state to fully embrace the product, passing bipartisan laws to support, when Congress effectively legalized hemp, after a 75-year prohibition, in the 2018 Farm Bill, the last year Polis served in the U.S. House. That gave the greenlight to a raft of new cannabis-related products for a myriad of non-intoxicating uses.  State Sen. Don Coram, a Republican from Montrose, is a strong advocate and hemp producer, elevating the status of the product by one of the state’s most respected voices in agriculture and Western Slope interests.

Sixty of Colorado’s 64 counties has at least one hemp-related business, as the state leads Oregon and New York, according to Hemp Grower magazine.

Colorado has at least 87,408 acres growing hemp served by 448 extractors and manufacturers. 

Learn more from the Colorado Hemp Association by clicking here.

— Joey Bunch