Tag: hemp

Congressional Committee Invites Hemp Industry Expert To Testify At Hearing On How FDA ‘Failed’ To Regulate Products

A congressional committee has scheduled a hearing for next week focused on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), inviting a hemp industry representative to testify on how the agency “failed” to approve certain products such as CBD.

The House Oversight Committee hearing—titled “Restoring Trust in FDA: Rooting Out Illicit Products”—is set to take place on Wednesday.

FDA “failed to approve products and take necessary enforcement actions resulting in a flood of illicit and counterfeit products entering the country,” a memo on the hearing says.

The meeting won’t exclusively focus on cannabis issues. But among the four listed witnesses selected to testify is Jonathan Miller of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, an organization that has long criticized FDA’s inaction on CBD and other cannabinoid regulations since the crop was federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill.

Miller told Marijuana Moment on Friday that he expects the hearing to be “wide-ranging,” but his testimony will concentrate on “all the challenges the hemp industry has been having by the FDA’s failure to regulate our products.”

He said that his testimony will serve as an “update” on issues he outlined during a 2023 hearing before a subcommittee of the full panel, where lawmakers raised concerns about FDA’s refusal to establish rules allowing for the marketing of federally legal hemp as a food item or dietary supplement.

In the two years since that initial meeting, the hemp market has faced repeated regulatory challenges—with a growing number of states moving to enact bans on certain hemp products due to the lack of regulations around intoxicating cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC that have become widely available.

“Nothing has happened at the FDA” to resolve the issue, Miller said. “And we think these ban efforts have a lot to do with the fact that we’re not regulated. So if we can get regulated, hopefully people will drop the efforts to ban our products.”

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Texas Lieutenant Governor Says He’ll Push For Special Session To Pass Hemp Product Ban

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) said he will move to force an overtime session of the Legislature if lawmakers fail to ban THC or tighten Texas’s bail laws—two of his top priorities—before the current session ends in early June.

The power to order lawmakers back to Austin for a special session is reserved for Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who also gets to set the agenda for such overtime rounds. But in his role presiding over the Texas Senate, Patrick can block any bill from passing, giving him leverage to compel special sessions by killing must-pass legislation.

Patrick did exactly that in 2017, thwarting passage of a “sunset” bill that would have extended the life of several state agencies, including the Texas Medical Board, after the House declined to take up measures curbing property tax rates and requiring transgender people to use public restrooms based on “biological sex” rather than their gender identities.

In an interview, Patrick affirmed that he would go a similar route this session if the House declines to get on board with his priority bill to clamp down on the state’s exploding hemp market by banning products that contain tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.

“There aren’t many things you go down that path for, but the life and health of people is one,” Patrick told The Texas Tribune on Wednesday. “I couldn’t, in good conscience, leave here knowing if we don’t do something about it in the next two years—how many kids get sick?”

Patrick and Senate lawmakers are taking aim at the roughly 8,300 Texas retailers that sell a range of hemp products—from gummies to beverages to flower buds—under a 2019 state law that authorized the sale of consumable hemp. Patrick and Sen. Charles Perry, the Lubbock Republican who carried the 2019 law, say the hemp industry has exploited a loophole in a bill that was intended to boost agriculture by allowing non-consumable products with small amounts of delta-9 THC.

While hemp products are not allowed to contain more than a 0.3 percent concentration of THC—anything higher is classified as marijuana—Patrick and Perry contend that the industry has endangered public health by putting products on the shelf with dangerously high levels of THC well beyond the 0.3 percent threshold.

Perry’s proposal this session, known as Senate Bill 3, would effectively shutter the hemp industry by making it illegal to possess or manufacture products containing THC outside the state’s limited medical marijuana program.

It’s already passed in the Senate, but it awaits action in the lower chamber, where industry leaders are hopeful House members will push for stricter oversight and licensing requirements in lieu of banning THC products altogether.

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Ohio CBD Retailers Push Back Against Effort To Limit Hemp Products To Marijuana Dispensaries

Ohio CBD store owners are concerned about a bill that would regulate intoxicating hemp and drinkable cannabinoid products something that could potentially put them out of business.

Fourteen people submitted opponent testimony and four people submitted supporter testimony for Ohio Senate Bill 86 during Tuesday’s Senate General Government Committee meeting. No supporters showed up at the meeting to testify in person.

“Should these restrictions pass, they would eliminate 90 percent of the non-intoxicating full-spectrum hemp products we currently offer,” said Jaimee Courtney, owner of Bellefontaine’s Sunmed Your CBD Store. “This would drive consumers to unregulated online markets, creating potential safety risks and diverting significant tax revenue out of Ohio.”

The bill would require intoxicating hemp products to be sold only at adult-use marijuana dispensaries instead of allowing them to be sold at CBD stores, convenience stores, smoke shops or gas stations.

The bill would also impose a 15 percent tax on intoxicating hemp products, ban sales to anyone under 21 and only allow intoxicating hemp products to be sold at dispensaries if the products have been tested and comply with standards for packaging, labeling and advertising.

Ohio state Sens. Steve Huffman (R-Tipp City) and Shane Wilkin (R-Hillsboro) introduced SB 86. Eleven people submitted testimony in support of the bill last week—including people in the marijuana business, poison control workers and religious organizations.

“The people walking into our stores are not looking to get high, they are looking for relief,” said Robert McClure, owner of Centerville and Deerfield Township’s Sunmed Your CBD Store. “Most of our customers will not go to a dispensary for a multitude of reasons.”

He said his store requires customers to be at least 21 years old to buy their products, which are all third-party tested.

“We have concerns that the language in SB 86 would ban most of all other types of hemp products from retail sales and driving them to an unsafe, illicit environment with no age restrictions,” said Kristin Mullins, president of the Ohio Grocers Association.

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Nebraska AG Warns Of Coming Crackdown On Hemp-Derived Products, Including Delta-8 THC

Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers (R) said Thursday that he is done negotiating with smoke and vape shop retailers he says are breaking state law by selling candy and other products with delta-8 THC, a synthetic version of THC.

Hilgers has spent the past year and a half trying to persuade and sue retailers into pulling off the shelves what he calls a dangerous, unregulated drug before more people than the half-dozen or so complaints his office has received get hurt.

In some of those cases, he has worked with retailers selling the gummies, pouches and other ways to consume delta-8 products to avoid using the full extent of potential state civil penalties and fines. He’s also avoided referring them for prosecution.

No longer, he said Thursday.

He said his civil attorneys in the AG’s Office are sending letters to 35 to 37 owners of 104 stores in the Omaha area demanding the products be pulled from store shelves or the state will sue for maximum pain.

In cases where delta-8 THC sales continue or where harder drugs were offered or sold, he said his office would refer any relevant investigative reports to local county attorneys for the filing of possible criminal charges.

“We gave them plenty of warning,” Hilgers said. “We thought criminal prosecution was not the right tool. They have decided not to change. Now criminal prosecutions are on the table as well… What they should do is take it off the shelf.”

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Federal Judge In Indiana Dismisses Hemp Industry Lawsuit Over Legality Of Delta-8 THC

A nearly two-year-old legal battle is over—for now—after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit over the legality of delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) goods and other low-THC hemp products.

Judge James R. Sweeney II, of the U.S. District Court for Indiana’s Southern District, wrote the suit is “fundamentally” a “question for consideration by Indiana’s courts.”

Delta-8 is an isomer of delta-9 THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

Plaintiffs 3Chi, Midwest Hemp Council and Wall’s Organics filed suit in 2023, several months after an opinion from Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) found the products are illegal.

The opinion was a direct response to a request by now-former Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter and the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council. Local law enforcement agencies took note, with some notifying retailers they could get in trouble or even raiding retailers, according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs argued that Rokita’s opinion violates the 2018 federal Farm Bill—which removed hemp from the definition of marijuana—and similar provisions in Indiana law by “unilaterally” reclassifying their products as Schedule I controlled drugs. They also sought an injunction.

The judge determined the plaintiffs had standing to sue. But in an order filed Tuesday, Sweeney found they “have not met their burden of demonstrating that their alleged injury is redressable by the Court.”

The “problem,” Sweeney wrote, is that Rokita’s opinion isn’t binding and isn’t law.

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Company Behind Edible Arrangements Enters Cannabis Industry With New Hemp Delivery Service—And A Different Kind Of Edible

The company behind Edible Arrangements is entering the cannabis market, launching a new delivery service for hemp products.

Edible Brands, best known for its line of ornate fruit arrangements, announced on Thursday that it was expanding to start selling different kinds of edibles: hemp gummies, drinks and supplements.

The products can be purchased for delivery from a new site, Edibles.com.

“Edible Brands’ wellness-driven approach aligns with the evolving future of this category,” Thomas Winstanley, the executive vice president of Edibles.com, said in a press release. “With our robust infrastructure and nationwide footprint, we are uniquely positioned to accelerate industry growth.”

“Joining an organization that prioritizes consumers, advocacy, and innovation allows us to strengthen and shape this emerging market,” he said.

That emerging market—which proliferated after hemp was federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill—has been facing challenges in recent years, as more states and Congress have pushed to reign in business selling intoxicating cannabinoid products.

Edibles.com isn’t currently servicing California, where the governor recently signed an emergency order banning hemp-derived products containing any traces of THC. However, the company didn’t reference the policy and simply said it was “unable to offer our products to California residents at this time, but stay tuned as we expand.”

It is launching hemp deliveries in Texas, though. But that would likely be complicated if a bill that passed the state Senate on Wednesday is ultimately enacted into law, similarly prohibiting any consumable hemp products that don’t exclusively contain non-intoxicating CBD or CBG.

It’s relatively rare to find cannabis products with no THC at all, and federal law provides that hemp is legal as long as it contains no more than 0.3 percent THC by dry weight.

In any case, Edible Brands evidently sees an opportunity even amidst the shifting policy landscape. And after Texas, it said it will be expanding to serve consumers in Florida and Georgia. Certain products will be available for shipping nationwide, depending on the state laws.

“The hemp industry is evolving rapidly, but consumers still face challenges with perception, education, and accessibility,” Somia Farid Silber, CEO of Edible Brands, said. “We’re making it easier than ever for consumers to access premium, vetted products with the convenience they expect today.”

Jake Bullock, CEO of the cannabis drink company Cann, which is part of Edible.com’s product offerings, called this market development “a defining moment for the hemp industry.”

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Texas Senate Passes Bill To Ban Hemp-Derived THC Products As New Poll Shows Voters Support Keeping Market Legal

The Texas Senate has approved a bill that cannabis advocates and stakeholders say would effectively eradicate the state’s hemp industry, prohibiting consumable products derived from the plant that contain any amount of THC.

This comes as a new poll shows overwhelming public support for keeping consumable hemp products legal, while strictly regulated.

With the backing of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R)—who held a press conference criticizing the hemp market on Wednesday after visiting stores that sell cannabinoid products—the hemp ban legislation from Sen. Charles Perry (R) passed the full chamber in a 24-7 vote.

Under the bill, only non-intoxicating CBD and CBG items could be sold, even though hemp with up to 0.3 percent THC by dry weight was legalized at the federal level in 2018. Supporters argue that re-criminalizing cannabis with any traces of THC is necessary to close a loophole in the state’s own hemp law that’s allowed for the proliferation of businesses selling intoxicating products.

“For those that argue that this should just be more regulation and tax, there’s not enough tax that we can collect that will deal with the behavioral health issues and the addictions that we currently face,” Perry said on the Senate floor. “It would be in the billions. It’s unenforceable because every day a new product hits the shelf that was at the whim of a chemist.”

“What they have created and what they’re doing is akin to K2 and Spice and bath salts of the past that we as a legislature voted out of existence as soon as possible,” he said. “The effect of what this drug is doing to the people that are involved in it—contrary to what you hear—is devastating lives. It’s generational. It is creating psychosis. It’s creating paranoia.”

Senators approved a series of amendments from the sponsor on the floor on Monday, including one that would require all consumable hemp products to be tested and federal Drug Enforcement Administration- (DEA) certified labs based in Texas.

Another Perry amendment that was adopted mandates that consumable hemp products be registered with the state Department of State Health Services (DSHS). Each product registration would carry a $500 fee, and they could not could not contain any non-cannabinoid mood-altering ingredients or additives. It would be a Class B misdemeanor to sell an unregistered product.

The body also passed an amendment to make it a felony offense for to operate a hemp manufacturing or retail business without a license or permit.

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Florida Senate Panel Takes Up Bill To Restrict Hemp Products

For the third year in a row, Florida lawmakers have begun debating a proposal to regulate THC-derived hemp products, which have evolved into a multibillion-dollar industry in the Sunshine State.

In addition to banning Delta-8 products and restricting the amount of Delta-9 THC levels in hemp products to 5 milligrams per serving and 50 milligrams per package, the latest proposal from Polk County Republican Sen. Colleen Burton (SB 438) includes for the first time regulations on hemp-infused drinks, which have surged in popularity over the past year.

The proposal would restrict the amount of THC per bottle or cans to no more than 5 milligrams. It would ban those drinks being sold at any locations other than ones already licensed to sell alcoholic beverages, adding additional prohibitions and requirements.

“Liquor stores and restaurants that would like to sell these products, they have come to us and asked us to provide some regulations so that they know that the products that they are selling have gone through the rigor of the testing and will all be held to the same standards,” Burton said in introducing the bill to the Senate Agriculture Committee on Monday afternoon.

But that provision received some pushback.

“Requiring us to carry a liquor license when we’re a non-alcoholic bottle shop kind of goes against what we built,” said Caitlyn Smith, co-owner of Herban Flow in St. Petersburg, which bills itself as Florida’s first non-alcoholic bottle shop.

Her husband and co-founder, Michael Smith, said that he is five years’ sober and the last thing that he wants is for his store to be regulated as a liquor store when it isn’t one.

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Missouri Lawmakers Reject Bill To Regulate Hemp Drinks And Edibles

A second proposal backed by Missouri’s hemp industry to regulate products like hemp-THC seltzers and edibles was defeated in a House committee Thursday morning, after the hemp-beverage distributor who helped draft the bill emailed committee members that morning asking them to kill it.

The 5-7 vote in the House General Laws committee came after state Rep. Dave Hinman of O’Fallon (R), the bill sponsor, spent hours last week trying to come up with a compromise among the splintered hemp industry leaders on regulations.

The same committee voted down a bill backed by the Missouri Hemp Trade Association last week in a 1-13 vote.

After that defeat, Hinman incorporated a number of the hemp association’s requests into an amended version of his bill, which he presented Thursday. State Rep. Ben Keathley (R) of Chesterfield, the chair of the committee, applauded Hinman’s attempt to bring the hemp leaders together.

“A lot of interests are working against each other in this bill, and it’s very difficult to come up with something that everyone’s going to be happy with,” Keathley said. “I think the bill sponsor put together a good package that allows us to do the most important thing of protecting Missouri children.”

Hinman’s amended bill addressed some of the concerns committee members had about costs of testing and increased the sales tax on these products to be the same as marijuana products, 6 percent. The bill also addressed concerns by hemp companies, he said, by allowing small-scale beverage manufacturers to self distribute and increased the maximum amount of THC per container.

But the fatal flaw that bill drafter Steven Busch, owner of Krey Distributing, could not support was allowing the continued sale of THC-A flower, which looks and acts very similar to marijuana buds.

Busch said he’s had discussions with Hinman previously about his concerns that THC-A is an unstable compound of the cannabis plant that becomes intoxicating when heated. And that process can happen when it sits on the shelf too long, he told committee members in emails and text messages Thursday morning.

Hinman told the committee he spoke with several industry experts who advised him the instability could be addressed by proper packaging requirements, which the bill included.

Earlier this week, Busch had told Hinman, whom he says he still highly respects, that he was pulling his support for the bill.

“It would really jeopardize the whole industry if they keep trying to push THC-A as hemp,” Busch told The Independent in an interview Thursday. “If somebody wants a product like that, they can very easily get it at a dispensary and that’s where it should be obtained.”

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Ohio Bill Seeks To Regulate Intoxicating Hemp And Limit Sales To Marijuana Dispensaries

A pair of Ohio Republican state senators want intoxicating hemp products to be sold only at adult-use dispensaries—not convenience stores, smoke shops or gas stations.

Ohio state Sens. Steve Huffman (R-Tipp City) and Shane Wilkin (R-Hillsboro) introduced Senate Bill 86, which would also impose a 15 percent tax on intoxicating hemp products sold at dispensaries and ban the sale of intoxicating hemp products to anyone under 21.

“Currently, intoxicating hemp products are untested, unregulated psychoactive products that can be just as intoxicating, if not more intoxicating, than marijuana,” Wilkin said in his sponsor testimony to the Senate General Government Committee on Tuesday.

The 2018 U.S. Farm Bill says hemp can be grown legally if it contains less than 0.3 percent THC.

Ohio is one of about 20 states that does not have any regulations around intoxicating hemp products, according to an Ohio State University Drug Enforcement and Policy Center study from November 2024. Fifteen states ban these products. Seven states, including Michigan, regulate it like cannabis, while seven other states regulate it like consumer goods, according to the study.

“Given the lack of regulations, the intoxicating hemp industry has been able to confuse Ohio consumers and law enforcement by marketing themselves as ‘dispensaries’ with ‘recreational marijuana,’” Huffman said in his testimony.

Under the bill, intoxicating hemp products would only be sold at dispensaries if the products have been tested and comply with standards for packaging, labeling and advertising. The bill would only apply to products that can be ingested or inhaled.

“To suppress the illicit market, this bill prohibits hemp products that are not sold in dispensaries from marketing the products as marijuana, using any terms associated with the sale of the product that would cause a consumer to infer the product is marijuana or that the entity selling the product is a marijuana dispensary,” Huffman said in his testimony.

He had a bill in the last General Assembly that would have banned the sale of all intoxicating hemp products, but it wasn’t able to make it out of committee. Hemp business owners testified against the bill since it would end their livelihood, but they spoke in favor of regulations.

SB 86 would also regulate drinkable cannabinoid products.

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