{"id":69966,"date":"2023-11-08T13:39:17","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T21:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/11\/08\/alaska-hemp-growers-sue-state-agriculture-officials-over-new-limits-on-cannabinoid-products\/"},"modified":"2023-11-08T19:46:22","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T03:46:22","slug":"alaska-hemp-growers-sue-state-agriculture-officials-over-new-limits-on-cannabinoid-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/11\/08\/alaska-hemp-growers-sue-state-agriculture-officials-over-new-limits-on-cannabinoid-products\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska Hemp Growers Sue State Agriculture Officials Over New Limits On Cannabinoid Products"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like they want to outright prohibit any hemp products while they allow the marijuana-producing companies to produce products that are exactly the same.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By James Brooks, Alaska Beacon<\/strong><\/p>\n

A coalition of hemp growers and manufacturers has sued the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR), claiming that new limits on intoxicating hemp products<\/a> are unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, by the Alaska Industrial Hemp Association and four businesses, was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Anchorage.<\/p>\n

Attorney Christopher Hoke, representing the plaintiffs, said the rules mean that virtually every hemp-derived product made in the state and for sale here\u2014drinks, gummies, cookies and more\u2014will become illegal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just harming our own here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He has requested<\/a> a temporary restraining order to keep the ban from coming into effect while the lawsuit proceeds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve asked for expedited consideration,\u201d Hoke said.<\/p>\n

The DNR, its commissioner, the state director of agriculture and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom (R) have been named in the lawsuit but have not yet filed a preliminary response to the complaint<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit stems from a regulation approved in October by Dahlstrom at the behest of the DNR.<\/p>\n

The regulation<\/a>, which took effect Friday, states in part that DNR may not approve \u201can industrial hemp product that contains delta-9-THC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alaska\u2019s marijuana industry is tightly regulated, with limits on who may buy products that contain THC\u2014the leading psychoactive ingredient in marijuana\u2014and how much THC those products may contain.<\/p>\n

Until Friday, the restrictions that applied to legal marijuana in Alaska largely didn\u2019t exist for products that contain delta-9-THC derived from hemp.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Congress passed\u2014and President Donald Trump signed\u2014a farm bill that stated that a hemp product could contain no more than 0.3 percent delta-9-THC by weight. There were few rules about limiting products by quantity, the buyer\u2019s age or potency, and there were few rules about licensing participants in the industry. Hemp products could also be sold across state lines. Marijuana products couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Some hemp manufacturers believe the farm bill\u2019s potency limit applies to a finished product, not a plant, and have been selling foods and beverages with large amounts of delta-9.<\/p>\n

Those products can be sold without an age limit and at businesses that aren\u2019t licensed to sell marijuana, making them widely available.<\/p>\n

Congress hasn\u2019t provided additional guidance on the law, so several states have jumped into the issue, passing laws or writing regulations to clarify their stance.<\/p>\n

Alaska\u2019s advisory task force on marijuana issues, commissioned by Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R), made the delta-9 issue a top priority, and the state\u2019s marijuana trade group backed off a push for legislation here after state agriculture officials said they would address it through regulation.<\/p>\n

In October, when Dahlstrom signed the new regulation, officials said it would prevent negative health consequences for young Alaskans.<\/p>\n

Members of the hemp industry fired back, saying that their products are no different than those sold by the legal marijuana industry, and they accused officials of improperly collaborating with the marijuana industry to benefit that sector.<\/p>\n

Dan Ferguson, owner of a major Anchorage hemp business, told<\/a> KTUU-TV in Anchorage that the new regulation is \u201ceffectively a kill shot from the cannabis industry to the hemp industry\u201d in Alaska.<\/p>\n

He and other hemp businesses say they\u2019ve now been left with millions of dollars in products that they cannot legally sell in Alaska.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like they want to outright prohibit any hemp products while they allow the marijuana-producing companies to produce products that are exactly the same,\u201d Hoke said.<\/p>\n

In the complaint, he argues that the new rules are a violation of the U.S. Constitution\u2019s commerce clause.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll hemp is federally lawful to possess, and hemp that fits the federal definition may not be interfered with as it flows through interstate commerce,\u201d the complaint said.<\/p>\n

The case has been assigned to Judge Sharon Gleason. No schedule has yet been set for written arguments on the restraining order.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this should fall our way,\u201d Hoke said.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Alaska Beacon.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Congressional Committee Urges DOJ To Study \u2018Adequacy\u2019 Of State Marijuana Laws And Address Federal Research Barriers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

The post Alaska Hemp Growers Sue State Agriculture Officials Over New Limits On Cannabinoid Products<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Alaska Hemp Growers Sue State Agriculture Officials Over New Limits On Cannabinoid Products<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt seems like they want to outright prohibit any hemp products while they allow the marijuana-producing companies to produce products that are exactly the same.\u201d By James Brooks, Alaska Beacon A coalition of hemp growers and manufacturers has sued the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR), claiming that new limitsContinue 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\/69966"}],"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=69966"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69967,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69966\/revisions\/69967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}