Our human capital resources objectives include, as applicable, identifying, recruiting, retaining, incentivizing and integrating our existing and additional employees. The principal purposes of our equity incentive plans are to attract, retain and motivate selected employees, consultants and directors through the granting of stock-based compensation awards.
Many of our employees, including members of our management team, have been reporting to work remotely due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which has resulted in the closure of our offices in Florida, Ohio and New York. Our operations or productivity may continue to be impacted throughout the duration of the COVID-19 outbreak and government-mandated closures.
Properties
Our principal place of business is located at 12400 Race Track Road, Tampa, FL 33626, which consists of approximately 5,000 square feet of office space which the Company leases. The relevant lease is scheduled to expire on January 31, 2023. We have a lease at 4025 Tampa Road, Oldsmar, FL 34677, which consists of approximately 9,200 square feet and houses our customer care center. The relevant lease is scheduled to expire on October 31, 2022.
We do not own any properties or land.
We believe our facilities are adequate and suitable for our current needs and that, should it be needed, suitable additional or alternative space will be available.
Government Regulation
The regulation of animal food products in the United States, including animal foods, chews, oils, and other products containing CBD, is complex, multi-faceted, and currently undergoing significant change. The FDA, the FTC, the USDA and other regulatory authorities at the federal, state and local levels, as well as authorities in foreign countries, extensively regulate, among other things, the research, development, testing, composition, manufacture, import, export, labeling, storage, distribution, promotion, marketing, and post-market reporting of animal foods, including those that contain CBD. We, along with our third-party contractors, are required to navigate a complex regulatory framework in the countries in which we wish to manufacture, test, import, export, or sell our products.
The various federal, state and local regulations regarding animal foods containing CBD are evolving, and we continue to monitor those developments. However, we cannot predict the timing, scope or terms of any new or revised state, federal or local regulations relating to animal foods containing CBD.
Regulation of Hemp and CBD
Historically, the DEA regulated CBD pursuant to the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”), which establishes a framework of controls over certain substances depending on whether they are classified in one of five risk-based schedules. Schedule I substances are the most stringently controlled, as they have been determined to have a high potential for abuse, there are no currently accepted medical uses in the U.S., and there is a lack of accepted safety for use of the substance under medical supervision. The CSA classifies “marihuana” as a Schedule I controlled substance and previously defined “marihuana” to include all parts of the cannabis plant, whether growing or not; the seeds of the plant; the resin extracted from any part of the plant; and every compound mixture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the plant, its seeds, or its resin (with a few exceptions, such as mature stalks of the plant and seeds incapable of germination). Pursuant to this definition, the DEA interpreted CBD to fall within the statutory definition of “marihuana” as a compound or derivative of the cannabis plant.
In February 2014, Congress enacted the Agricultural Act of 2014 (“2014 Farm Bill”) to allow for the limited growth and cultivation of industrial hemp, which was defined as including all parts of the cannabis plant, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (“THC”) concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis. This statute also allowed, as permitted by state law, growing and cultivating industrial hemp under the auspices of a state agricultural pilot program and by institutions of higher education and state departments of agriculture.
In December 2018, Congress enacted the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (“2018 Farm Bill”) to more broadly allow for the production of hemp pursuant to state and tribal plans overseen by the USDA. The 2018 Farm Bill amended the statutory definition of “marihuana” under the CSA to specifically exclude “hemp,” which is defined as any part of the cannabis plant, including the seeds thereof and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 THC concentration of not more than