Former state officials, business and advocacy representatives and current state officials met in Washington last week to talk about the law surrounding cannabinoid-based hemp products. Discussions included what led to an explosion of products that are deemed to be intoxicating across the nation, possible harms caused by a largely unregulated industry, and how the policymakers plan to move forward with the uncertain environment.
The Attorney General Alliance, a nonprofit organization that represents attorneys general in each state, hosted a webinar on June 4, featuring current and former government officials, including those from Oregon, Florida and California, as well as business representatives and advocacy groups.
AGA’s Cannabis Project included the presentation „Illicit Hemp Derived Intoxicants : State Enforcer Mechanisms and Challenges,” which, according to the group, was „designed to give interested parties the opportunity to engage in dialogue about how legalizing cannabis could preserve public safety and health, protect consumers, and guarantee the rule of the law while respecting states’ role to experiment and innovate as laboratories of democratic democracy.”
Since Congress passed the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp nationwide, largely unregulated products containing not only CBD but also psychoactive THC—which the Farm Bill sought to limit in hemp products—have proliferated online and at storefronts across the country.
That, speakers said, has allowed broad access by minors to intoxicating products, caused confusion among law enforcement—who often struggle to tell legal hemp products apart from federally illegal marijuana—and undercut state-regulated medical and adult-use cannabis markets.
State policymakers have taken steps to control the product, but often using different methods.
Chris Lindsey said that in 2023 only eight to nine states would have laws about hemp-derived cannabis. In the years since, Lindsey explained, states have rushed into this area.
„Around 41 [states] Lindsey pointed out that „we have actually laws in place now to try and address this.” These laws are inconsistencies, of course. There are many different laws. They’re taking different approaches. „But it shows that regulators and lawmakers are much less receptive to these challenges.
Multiple states—from California to Florida—have moved to ban intoxicating cannabinoids in recent months. In Texas, the legislature recently delivered a bill to the governor that would outlaw all consumable hemp-derived cannabinoid products containing any detectable THC.
Erin Williams of Oregon’s Department of Justice, who did not speak on behalf of her agency, stated that AGs can „rely on the credibility of their office as the leading legal authority in their state in order to pursue federal change.” She referred to a letter from 2024 sent by state AGs urging federal legislators to amend the federal hemp definition.
In the letter, it was stated that „as Congress prepares for a five-year renewal of the Farm Bill,” „we urge your committees” to „address the obvious vagueness that the 2018 Farm Bill created that led to 'the proliferation of intoxicating products of hemp across the country and the challenges that have been faced by states and localities in responding to the health and safety crises that resulted.”
As federal lawmakers consider changes—a congressional committee earlier this month approved a bill that would ban all hemp products containing THC—Williams said attorneys general can also take other steps to limit possible harms, for example by issuing advisory opinions, offering guidance to lawmakers and targeting false claims under their consumer protection authority.
She pointed out that state regulators are more likely to enforce the law against companies located in their own states than they are towards manufacturers who sell online.
Others acknowledged that ambiguity in the Farm Bill might have unintentionally led to the emergence of an addictive hemp market, but stated that a better way to control the product was more effective than simply enforcing laws against hemp products.
Diane Goldstein is a retired lieutenant of police and the chairperson of Law Enforcement Action Partnership. She compared the current hemp regulations to those of California’s early marijuana laws, which she referred to as „the Wild West”.
Goldstein noted that hemp is also in the infancy stage. Law enforcement finds it difficult to distinguish between good and bad actors.
She urged policymakers to find best practices, and create thoughtful policies.
Michelle Minton is a senior policy analyst with the libertarian Think Tank, The Reason Foundation. She developed a model law that could be used by officials in states. The current state of affairs with hemp-based products is due in part to the prohibition on marijuana, according to Minton.
Minton stated that the marijuana prohibition still in place at federal level is the root cause.
„Most of the consumers who are pursuing these products don’t want a ‘marijuana-like product,'” she said. They want marijuana but, for whatever reason, don’t have access to legal marijuana products.
Among the policy recommendations in the model legislation are to allow most forms of cannabis products—including flower, vape products and edibles and beverages, Minton said. The products would have to be labeled, tested and only available to those over 21.
„Most of the hemp cannabinoids that we call synthetic or synthesized should be legal, too,” continued she. We left it to the state’s discretion whether they want to ban the artificial cannabinoids that are not found in the cannabis plant.
She said that the goal was to „close loopholes which allow unregulated products on the market to flow.”
Minton concluded that „if a similar model were implemented, this should come along with similar reforms for the marijuana industry so they feel a little more lightly regulated.” [and] „Less costs”
Intoxicating hemp-based products are not subjected to the same level of regulation as marijuana and are usually taxed lower. This has led many state-licensed cannabis businesses to complain that they unfairly compete against it.
Kelly Vance (assistant director of Division of Food Safety, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services) was another speaker who noted that it is difficult to draw a line between cannabinoid-containing products synthesized and those naturally occurring.
You can examine the molecular structures of Delta 8 [THC] „They’re really not that different from heroin,” said he. „So if you make the argument—and successfully—so that you can take CBD, convert it to delta 8, and it’s legal under the Farm Bill. In a laboratory, you add three, four or five more steps to create heroin. „Did you just legalize Heroin under the same arguments?”
During a short Q&A portion of the webinar, an audience member asked whether only retailers with liquor licenses should be able to sell intoxicating hemp products—a position some alcohol trade groups have endorsed.
Minton, from the Reason Foundation, replied: „I’d say any retailer who is licensed or permitted to sell adult age-gated products and has proven to be effective at doing so, should also be allowed to sell another adult intoxicating substance.” „And then, if you don’t think they are age-gating properly, you have the option of removing their license or permit.”
When asked to consider the future, many speakers predicted that Congress would try to close the hemp-loophole.
Lindsey, an ATACH employee, said, „I am lobbying Congress to close that loophole, if for nothing else.” [than] There are no other free products sold in the United States.”
Lindsey said that even water, once it has fallen from the skies, is subject to regulation. „They will regulate the intoxicants made from hemp.” „It’s just a question of when.”
The latest bill that bans intoxicating cannabis is now being considered by the full House Committee after receiving approval from a subcommittee of Congress.
The bill is 138 pages long and covers several issues. However, for the hemp industry there’s one part that should be of special concern. That section would redefine hemp as hemp under federal law, which would make it illegal to sell cannabis products that contain any amount of THC.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), chair of the subcommittee, said in opening remarks that the legislation „closes the hemp loophole from the 2018 Farm Bill that has resulted in the proliferation of intoxicating cannabinoid products, including delta-8 and hemp flower being sold online and in gas stations nationwide under the false guise of being ‘USDA approved.'”
The time has come for Congress to fix this problem and protect the legal industrial hemp business.
This would eliminate most of the hemp products that are commonly sold, since even the non-intoxicating CBD products which are available across the nation contain traces amounts THC. These products can be sold under current laws if the THC content is less than 0.3 per cent by weight.
The hemp language is largely consistent with appropriations and agriculture legislation that was introduced, but not ultimately enacted, under the last Congress.
Hemp stakeholders protested this proposal. An earlier version was included last year in the base legislation from the subcommittee. It’s virtually identical to a provision of the 2024 Farm Bill that was attached by a separate committee last May via an amendment from Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL), which was also not enacted into law.
Jim Higdon told MEDCAN24 that if this amendment became law it would destroy the American hemp industry. It will also set back a decade of progress in the legalization of cannabis. Republicans and Democrats who support freedom must oppose Rep. Harris’s attacks on American hemp growers.
Meanwhile, alcohol industry representatives descended on Washington, D.C. in April to urge members of Congress to create a federal regulatory framework for intoxicating hemp-derived products such as cannabinoid-infused beverages—a market segment that’s ballooned since the legalization of hemp through the 2018 Farm Bill.
A report from Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) last year called cannabis a „significant threat” to the alcohol industry, citing survey data that suggests more people are using cannabis as a substitute for alcoholic beverages such a beer and wine.
Last November, meanwhile, a beer industry trade group put out a statement of guiding principles to address what it called „the proliferation of largely unregulated intoxicating hemp and cannabis products,” warning of risks to consumers and communities resulting from THC consumption.
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Pixabay is the source of this photo.