The Rockdale Municipal Development District (MDD) met in special session Friday to hear an entrepreneur talk about plans to bring jobs to the Rockdale area.
Jerry Walters II is the CEO and co-founder of Oppidian Wellness Inc.
The business’s mission is to “develop and distribute pharmaceutical formulated products derived from industrial hemp.
Walters said he foresees Rockdale becoming a hub for cultivation, processing and distribution of such products generating jobs in all those areas.
He emphasized that production of industrial hemp is legal and that it is not marijuana.
While both are derived from strains of the cannabis plant, Walters said “you can’t get high” from industrial hemp.
He said the THC level in industrial hemp by law must be less than 0.3 percent. THC stands for tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive compound found in cannabis plants.
“Hemp” is traditionally used to describe a non-intoxicating cannabis that is harvested for industrial use of its derived products.
On Monday Gov. Greg Abbott signed a new law Monday that clears up which cannabiudiol (CBD) products are legal in Texas and will also allow local farmers to grow hemp as a crop.
It will allow Texas to set up a federally approved program for farmers to grow hemp as an industrial crop, including procedures for sampling, inspection and testing.
It also expands the kind of hemp products that can be legally purchased in Texas to include any hemp or hemp-derived products containing less than 0.3 percent of THC.
Blood drive June 21 at Twisted Scissors
Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center will host a “Commit For Life” blood drive from 12-noon to 4:30 p.m. at Twisted Scissors Salon and Boutique, 137 North Main in downtown Rockdale.
For more information contact Dani Monie at 512-543-5115, sponsor code N 136.
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