{"id":53635,"date":"2022-03-17T04:53:05","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T12:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/03\/17\/thc-restriction-bill-on-virginia-governors-desk-would-harm-hemp-industry-advocates-say\/"},"modified":"2022-03-17T13:46:04","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T21:46:04","slug":"thc-restriction-bill-on-virginia-governors-desk-would-harm-hemp-industry-advocates-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/03\/17\/thc-restriction-bill-on-virginia-governors-desk-would-harm-hemp-industry-advocates-say\/","title":{"rendered":"THC Restriction Bill On Virginia Governor\u2019s Desk Would Harm Hemp Industry, Advocates Say"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill doesn\u2019t do anything to actually solve the problem. It actually just hurts the current law-abiding Virginia hemp industry that\u2019s making good quality products.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Jackie Llanos Hernandez, Virginia Mercury<\/strong><\/p>\n

The General Assembly failed at finding a path to starting recreational marijuana sales this year, but a bill\u00a0outlining stricter regulations for retailers selling what one lawmaker called \u201cjuiced-up\u201d synthetic products made its way through the legislature last week with bipartisan support.<\/p>\n

The bill, which is now before Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), explicitly bans sales of any substance that contains more than 0.3 percent or .25 milligrams of THC per serving or more than one milligram per package. The measurements would apply to any naturally occurring or synthetic version of THC such as delta-8, the popular synthetic substitute made from industrial hemp that producers claim is legal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis product is dangerous because people don\u2019t understand the impact, the safety issues,\u201d said Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta, who introduced the legislation.<\/p>\n

Since the personal possession and home cultivation of marijuana became legal in the commonwealth last year, but not commercial recreational sales of the drug, which is currently restricted to licensed medical dispensaries, have led to a wide variety of products that may or may not be legal being sold in retail outlets. As\u00a0reported by The Mercury last month, gas stations, health food stores and marijuana retailers sold mislabeled products that contained illegal amounts of delta-9 THC<\/a> marketed as the supposedly legal delta-8 counterpart. Wrangling between the Republican-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate this year failed to produce a solution for legalizing recreational sales.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEvery year the language gets a little bit closer, ultimately, to what we need to support consumer safety to ensure consumer protections,\u201d said Michelle Peace, a forensic science professor at VCU, who has conducted reviews of marijuana retail products sold in Virginia stores. \u201cI don\u2019t think that the bill is going to address absolutely everything we need it to address in terms of regulating cannabis, but I do think that it gets us closer.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it was introduced, Hanger\u2019s SB 591<\/a> attempted to curtail marijuana retail products\u2019 appeal to children by banning depictions of humans, animals, vehicles and fruits. But the bill expanded to bring the unregulated market under control.<\/p>\n

To close the loopholes when a new compound comes on the market it is essential for legislation to give state agencies flexibility in the existing regulatory framework, Peace said, describing the popularity of delta-8 as a perennial problem that would continue with scientific advancements.<\/p>\n

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Although the legislation passed with broad bipartisan support, hemp advocates such as Jason Amatucci, the president of the Virginia Hemp Coalition<\/a>, say the legislation \u201cthrows the whole hemp industry under the bus.\u201d Amatucci agreed with the provision that will regulate products\u2019 appeal to children but said the limits set forth are so low they would criminalize most products.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill doesn\u2019t do anything to actually solve the problem,\u201d Amatucci said. \u201cIt actually just hurts the current law-abiding Virginia hemp industry that\u2019s making good quality products.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Thanks to the Delegates who voted NO on the misguided and damaging bill SB 591 :
NAYS\u2013Ballard, Cordoza, Edmunds, Freitas, March, Wampler, Wright\u20137<\/p>\n

\u2014 Virginia Hemp Coalition (@VirginiaHemp) March 14, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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At the federal level, delta-8 remains unregulated because of a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill that regulated the levels of delta-9 THC levels in hemp\u2014legalizing a 0.3 percent standard that the bill passed by the General Assembly mirrors\u2014but does not mention delta-8.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the politicians celebrate alcohol and everybody loves it,\u201d Amatucci said. \u201cBut as soon as you have cannabis or someone is intoxicated with cannabis, everybody loses their minds on this state. They can\u2019t think clearly, and they feel like they can\u2019t regulate it, or they have to ban it or they have to criminalize it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Virginia Mercury.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Kansas Senators Hold First Of Three Medical Marijuana Legalization Hearings In Committee<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Photo courtesy of Pixabay<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post THC Restriction Bill On Virginia Governor\u2019s Desk Would Harm Hemp Industry, Advocates Say<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: THC Restriction Bill On Virginia Governor\u2019s Desk Would Harm Hemp Industry, Advocates Say<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis bill doesn\u2019t do anything to actually solve the problem. It actually just hurts the current law-abiding Virginia hemp industry that\u2019s making good quality products.\u201d By Jackie Llanos Hernandez, Virginia Mercury The General Assembly failed at finding a path to starting recreational marijuana sales this year, but a bill\u00a0outlining stricterContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53636,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53635\/revisions\/53636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}