{"id":75883,"date":"2024-06-03T05:51:21","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T13:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/06\/03\/minnesota-marijuana-regulators-destroy-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars-worth-of-illegally-sold-hemp-flower\/"},"modified":"2024-06-03T12:45:47","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T20:45:47","slug":"minnesota-marijuana-regulators-destroy-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars-worth-of-illegally-sold-hemp-flower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/06\/03\/minnesota-marijuana-regulators-destroy-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars-worth-of-illegally-sold-hemp-flower\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota Marijuana Regulators Destroy Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars\u2019 Worth Of Illegally Sold Hemp Flower"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe places that have been doing it have been reported by those who are better actors over and over and over and over.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Peter Callaghan, MinnPost<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since Minnesota began cracking down on the illegal sale of raw cannabis flower in many registered hemp retailers, its agents have confiscated a lot of product worth a fair amount of money.<\/p>\n

According to numbers released by the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), inspectors have confiscated and destroyed 12,094 units of flower\u2014such as bags, jars or pre-rolled joints\u2014with an estimated retail value of $278,000. The illegal products were taken from 58 different retail locations and amounted to nearly 73 pounds of raw cannabis flower.<\/p>\n

While it has been legal to possess and use cannabis in Minnesota since last August, it is not yet legal to sell it and won\u2019t be until sometime next spring. And while many hemp-derived low-potency products like gummies and beverages have been legal to sell since the summer of 2022, raw cannabis flower falls into a gray area. That is, if it has low THC content, it could be legal. But most of what has been sold exceeds the potency levels that separates hemp from marijuana.<\/p>\n

If the confiscated products have likely been illegal under both the 2022 hemp-derived products law and the 2023 recreational cannabis law, why did it take this long for the state to crack down? Blame an inadvertent gap in the 2023 law that attempted to provide temporary state regulation of hemp products while the new Office of Cannabis Management was being set up.<\/p>\n

The Office of Medical Cannabis was given temporary say over the two-year-old hemp-derived market but was not given control over raw flower, only products made from the plant like gummies and drinks.<\/p>\n

That gap identified by regulators<\/a> late last year allowed some stores to sell the flower that looks, smells and intoxicates like marijuana. At the same time, other retailers who wanted to follow the new law were left at a competitive disadvantage.<\/p>\n

The raw flower was often sold as a hemp plant with high concentrations of THCA (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid). The same products are offered for sale from out-of-state businesses and mailed to customers where cannabis is not legal, or not yet legal as in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Because of the regulation gap, retailers would tell inspectors the products for sale in their stores were legal hemp and the same inspectors did not have the authority to take samples for testing. Yet a test arranged by MinnPost<\/a> earlier this year found that the flower for sale far exceeded the THC concentration levels that define hemp and was, in fact, high-potency cannabis.<\/p>\n

State regulators created a workaround to begin ridding stores of raw flower that exceeded potency limits. That solution was an interagency agreement where medical cannabis inspectors could essentially be deputized by OCM to enforce the ban on raw flower sales until licensing occurs next spring.<\/p>\n

Since that arrangement began March 7,<\/a> the inspectors, who had worked with retailers to make sure hemp-derived products were legal, could now confiscate raw flower that was being sold. While some flower might have THCA levels below the legal limit in its raw form, state law requires an assessment of \u201ctotal THC\u201d which takes into account all cannabinoids after they have been burned via smoking or vaping. It is that \u201cdecarboxylation\u201d process that converts THCA to THC.<\/p>\n

Inspectors both reviewed the certificates of analysis that are required of all hemp-derived products on sale. They also had access to a mobile testing lab, the OCM reported in March<\/a>. An enforcement notice to retailers threatened fines \u201cin excess of $1 million.\u201d It even said violators might endanger their chances of getting recreational licenses next year. Neither fines nor citations have been issued, OCM reports.<\/p>\n

The updated cannabis law signed by Gov. Tim Walz (DFL) last week includes language pushed by legislative Republicans that tells the OCM that it cannot issue cannabis business licenses next year to \u201cany person or business who violated this chapter after August 1, 2023.\u201d It does allow the OCM to disregard the directive if it finds the violation was a mistake, was made in \u201cgood faith\u201d and did not involve gross negligence.<\/p>\n

It also says that OCM can\u2019t give licenses to anyone convicted of illegal sales or fined for illegal sales after August 1, 2023, which was the day that possession and use of cannabis became legal in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

The revisions to the state\u2019s cannabis law signed last week also accepted a request by OCM interim director Charlene Briner to move all of the operations of the Office of Medical Cannabis\u2014including regulation of the hemp-derived market\u2014to the Office of Cannabis Management in July. That will make the interagency agreement unnecessary after recreational cannabis, medical cannabis and low-potency hemp-derived are combined into one agency.<\/p>\n

David Mendolia owns St. Paul Cannabis<\/a> and is one of the hemp retailers who complained to the OCM and the medical cannabis office for not regulating raw cannabis flower. He said he is pleased that the workaround had led to getting the illegal product out of stores but is puzzled as to why the agency did not issue citations.<\/p>\n