US Hemp Roundtable – Delta 8 Update

Delta-8 updates in GA, KY, MI and OR

Delta-8 THC remains the hottest topic in the hemp industry, and policymakers in Congress and in statehouses across the country are furiously addressing the issue.

The nation’s leading hemp organizations have been taking roughly similar positions, but with a few nuanced differences.

  • The U.S. Hemp Roundtable, the industry’s national advocacy organization, opined in March that products with intoxicating effect should not be marketed as hemp, but rather should be regulated akin to adult-use cannabis.
  • The U.S. Hemp Authority, the industry’s self-regulating organization, announced a few weeks later that it would not certify products that were marketed for their intoxicating impact or exceeded 0.3 total THC thresholds.
  • Last week, the Hemp Industries Association, the industry’s longest standing national trade association, announced its opposition to bans on delta-8 and called on the industry to develop high standards for testing and labeling such products, and keeping them out of the hands of minors.
  • And just this week, the board of the American Herbal Production Association, a leading dietary supplement trade association, issued policy guidance that discourages the marketing of products containing “synthesized cannabinoids,” including synthesized delta-8 THC, and that are identified as hemp products.

Meanwhile, states are taking action.

This month, we learned about raids of shops in Kentucky and Georgia for selling delta-8 THC products, with arrests made of retailers in Georgia.

We are also excited to report that two states have followed the approach recommended by the Roundtable:

MichiganHB 4517 is designed to clarify protections for consumable hemp products, while also regulating products with intoxicating levels of total THC as part of Michigan’s marijuana program. Under the bill, total THC includes THC-A, delta-8, delta-9, delta-10 and a structural, optical, or geometric isomer of THC. The bill passed both legislative chambers and is now on Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s desk.

OregonHB 3000 would define THC to include all THCs and intoxicating cannabinoids that are artificially derived. The bill would also prohibit retail sales of cannabinoid products intended for human consumption that contain more than 0.3% THC and would restrict sales of delta-8 THC products intended for human consumption to persons 21 and older. HB 3000 passed the Oregon House and Senate, which are now adjourned, and has been presented to Governor Kate Brown.

Stay tuned to this space as more and more states address this complex issue.

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