Following the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp became federally legal in the United States. Now a few years later, states across the country are struggling to contain the proliferation of intoxicating hemp products across their markets.
Rend Al-Mondhiry, the co-chair of the Regulatory Group at Amin Wasserman Gurnani LLP, explores the conflicts surrounding hemp below.
Recently, the state of California implemented emergency rules which prohibit any hemp product for human consumption that contains even trace amounts of THC. The new rules also ban the sale of hemp products to individuals aged below 21.
Over in New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy signed into law a bill that classified hemp products which contained over 2.5 mg per package or 0.5mg of THC per serving as intoxicating products. The new law also imposes age restrictions on products that contain any amounts of THC.
In Missouri, Gov. Mike Parson also attempted to ban intoxicating hemp products, which was met with a lot of resistance from the hemp industry and resulted in a legal battle. Legal challenges have been filed in other states as well, including Wyoming, Iowa, Virginia, Arkansas, New York and Maryland.
While some states work towards prohibiting THC in hemp products, others like Utah, Tennessee, and Minnesota are allowing various products with different THC levels to be sold in their jurisdictions.
Regulators in the restrictive states base their hemp prohibition on the fact that minors are able to access these products as well as public health concerns linked to synthetically derived cannabinoids like delta-8 THC.
Meanwhile, the cannabis industry has raised concerns about the equity of state laws related to marijuana, particularly in states where the recreational market is struggling. Given that cannabis is still a federally controlled substance, firms in this industry have had to operate under frameworks that regulate their products.
Unlike cannabis, hemp isn’t strictly regulated, allowing an uninhibited flow of products. Some in the hemp industry argue that the increase in restrictive approaches and particularly THC, may have been driven by the cannabis industry focused on protecting its monopoly in legal states. Others add that with cannabis operators recording decreases in sales, the recent prohibitions may have been the cannabis industry trying to level the playing field.
The 2025 state legislative session may see a renewed push by states to restrict products that contain THC in states like Texas, Ohio, and Illinois. Experts also expect that the overlap of federal and state laws on hemp products and the lack of clarity on the matter as well as the discord on how these products should be regulated will result in more legal challenges.
The regulatory uncertainties surrounding hemp products in different jurisdictions is posing serious operational challenges for many companies, such as Software Effective Solutions Corp. (d/b/a MedCana) (OTC: SFWJ) since it is hard to make predictions regarding the future direction of the industry.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Software Effective Solutions Corp. (d/b/a MedCana) (OTC: SFWJ) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/SFWJ
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