A pair of newly announced government grants totaling more than half a million dollars will fund research into hemp, marijuana and processes to differentiate the two forms of the cannabis plant from one another.<\/p>\n
One grant, of $300,000 to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will fund the agency\u2019s evaluation of the chemical composition of commercially available hemp-derived vape products, part of an effort to better understand their makeup and the accuracy of product labels.<\/p>\n
The award, of $216,763, is going to Sam Houston State University in Texas to develop analytical methods to distinguish between hemp and marijuana vape products.<\/p>\n
Both funding announcements were made in recent weeks by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), part of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). And both are aimed at helping policymakers, regulators, law enforcement and others better understand and identify hemp and hemp-derived products as they flood the marketplace following the 2018 Farm Bill\u2019s nationwide legalization of cannabis with less than 0.3 percent THC.<\/p>\n
The NIST award is part of a broad effort to understand hemp-derived vape products and is expected to culminate in a publicly available report and journal articles. It will evaluate commercially available hemp products in the U.S. using standardized laboratory methods.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe overall goal of this project is to provide policymakers, regulators, public health officials, toxicologists, and seized drug forensic laboratories with a better understanding of the chemical composition, stability, and product label accuracy of hemp-derived vape products,\u201d an NIJ description<\/a> of the award says.<\/p>\n Both awards note that following the legalization of hemp, more producers began using methods to chemically convert hemp into psychoactive cannabinoids, such as delta-8 THC and delta-9 THC.<\/p>\n \u201cTo address the excess of these materials,\u201d the NIST award says of hemp following the Farm Bill\u2019s enactment, \u201ca synthetic process was developed to convert excess CBD-rich hemp into other cannabinoids such as \u22068-THC accelerating the hemp-derived product market. The 2018 Farm Bill does not address the regulation of these products forcing individual states to establish their own policies that have been slow to develop resulting in a drastic growth of these products in an extremely short period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n The award says more information is needed about the current hemp-derived vape market across the U.S., how products vary across the country, how to identify synthetic cannabinoids and other, related issues.<\/p>\n The separate grant to Sam Houston State University in Texas, meanwhile, is meant to support development of analytical methods to distinguish between hemp and marijuana\u2014chiefly samples seized by law enforcement. It will use \u201csemi-quantitative and quantitative analysis of \u22069-THC, including in the presence of emerging \u22069-THC positional isomers, through ion complexation with copper phosphine complexes,\u201d according to NIJ\u2019s description of the award.<\/p>\n The announcement<\/a> notes that \u201cthere are growing concerns about the potential conversion of cannabinoid isomers to \u22069-THC,\u201d explaining that the research is intended to help provide \u201cthe seized drug community with a method for the differentiation of hemp and marijuana, including the differentiation of \u22069-THC positional isomers through unique mass spectral features for enhanced certainty.\u201d<\/p>\n Funding to improve cannabis testing methods\u2014and to conduct testing itself\u2014has picked up since the federal legalization of hemp and ensuing flood of hemp-derived products onto the U.S. market, generally with little to no regulation. That\u2019s on top of the rapid growth of the cannabis testing industry following the legalization of marijuana in states across the country.<\/p>\n This summer, NIST published a new report on laboratory analysis<\/a> as part of a project designed to help testing labs ensure accuracy and precision in testing cannabis products. The report focuses on determining cannabinoid content in plant material samples, following earlier reports on moisture content and certain toxins and heavy metals.<\/p>\n NIST established its Cannabis Laboratory Quality Assurance Program (CannaQAP) in 2020<\/a>. The program\u2019s goal is to \u201chelp laboratories accurately measure key chemical compounds in marijuana, hemp and other cannabis products including oils,\u201d NIST said at the time of its launch.<\/p>\n The program, created after the 2018 Farm Bill\u2019s federal legalization of hemp, is split into three exercises. The first centered on measuring the\u00a0concentration of up to 17 different cannabinoids in hemp oil<\/a>. NIST published a report on that segment in mid-2021.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) along with other law enforcement agencies for years have been calling for help distinguishing legal hemp from federally prohibited marijuana<\/a>.<\/p>\n Federally funded research published earlier this year detailed two new ways researchers say they\u2019ve discovered to test samples<\/a>.<\/p>\n As far as regulating cannabinoids, DEA also recently clarified that as far as it\u2019s concerned, the 0.3 percent THC threshold for hemp includes not only delta-9 THC itself but also the related cannabinoid THCA<\/a>, which is converted into delta-9 THC when heated\u2014a process known as decarboxylation.<\/p>\n Some experts have disputed DEA\u2019s interpretation of the statute on intoxicating hemp-based cannabinoids, however. And a federal appeals court ruled in 2022 that the way that existing rules are written\u00a0makes delta-8 THC exempt from control<\/a>, as the law is \u201csilent\u201d on the minor cannabinoid while clearly legalizing hemp extracts and derivatives.<\/p>\n Lawmakers at the state and federal levels have also begun looking at standards for delta-8 THC, a psychoactive compound commonly derived from hemp products. Some congressional legalization, meanwhile, would\u00a0ban most consumable hemp-based cannabinoid products entirely<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some industry stakeholders have said the change could even federally criminalize CBD products because the measure would apply to all ingestible hemp products with any level of THC.<\/p>\n Already many products sold as hemp meet the federal definition of marijuana. A NIST analysis earlier this year found that\u00a0the vast majority of smokable hemp product samples\u2013about 93 percent\u2014contained more than 0.3 percent THC<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, more states are taking steps to regulate hemp-derived cannabinoids at that level. In California, for example, an industry effort to halt that state\u2019s enforcement of new emergency regulations banning consumable hemp products fell short, with a state judge denying a request for a temporary restraining order<\/a>.<\/p>\n The underlying lawsuit contends that the rules backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) are based on a faulty declaration of \u201cemergency\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and come after officials failed to effectively implement state hemp regulation legislation that was enacted in 2021.<\/p>\n States around the country are moving to enact similar cannabinoid restrictions<\/a> in an effort to limit the proliferation of intoxicating hemp-derived products following the federal 2018 Farm Bill\u2019s legalization of the crop. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D), for example, signed a bill into law putting hemp products under the purview of the state\u2019s cannabis commission<\/a>, a move that\u2019s also sparked a court challenge.<\/p>\n Somewhat similar discussions about how to regulate hemp derivatives are playing out at the federal level, as congressional lawmakers consider legislative provisions to impose a general ban on hemp-derived cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC.<\/p>\n Rep. Mary Miller\u2019s (R-IL) amendment to the 2024 Farm Bill, for example, was\u00a0approved by a House committee in May<\/a>\u00a0and would remove cannabinoids that are \u201csynthesized or manufactured outside of the plant\u201d from the federal definition of legal hemp. The change is backed by prohibitionists as well as some marijuana companies, who\u2019ve described the restriction as a fix to a \u201cloophole\u201d that was created under the 2018 Farm Bill that federally legalized hemp and its derivatives.<\/p>\n Anti-drug groups, law enforcement and some health organizations have called on Congress to embrace the ban, arguing that\u00a0\u201ctrying to regulate semi-synthetic cannabinoids will not work.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n In addition to Miller\u2019s amendment in the 2025 Farm Bill, the House Appropriations Committee in July approved a separate spending bill that contains a similar\u00a0provision to prohibit cannabinoid products such as delta-8 THC and CBD<\/a>\u00a0containing any \u201cquantifiable\u201d amount of THC.<\/p>\n Hemp-derived cannabinoids also came up in a recent federal appeals court decision in which judges ruled that\u00a0cannabinoids derived from hemp, such as THC-O-acetate, indeed qualify as hemp and are legal under the 2018 Farm Bill<\/a>. In making that ruling, the court rejected the Drug Enforcement Administration\u2019s more restrictive interpretation of the law.<\/p>\n How to address hemp-derived cannabinoids has\u00a0caused some fractures within the cannabis community<\/a>, and in some cases\u00a0marijuana businesses have found themselves on the same side as prohibitionists<\/a>\u00a0in pushing a derivatives ban.<\/p>\n In a letter to congressional leaders ahead of Miller\u2019s amendment, the U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC) proposed specific language they wanted to see included that would place hemp-derived cannabinoids containing any amount of THC under the definition of federally illegal marijuana.<\/p>\n While they\u2019ve focused on the need to address public safety concerns related to unregulated \u201cintoxicating\u201d cannabinoid products such as delta-8 THC, some hemp industry advocates say the effect of the proposed language could be a ban on virtually all non-intoxicating CBD products as well, as most on the market contain at least trace levels of THC, consistent with the Farm Bill definition of hemp that allows for up to 0.3 percent THC by dry weight.<\/p>\n Meanwhile,\u00a0the legislation that advanced through the House Agriculture Committee<\/a>\u00a0in May also contains provisions that would reduce regulatory barriers for certain hemp farmers and scale-back a ban on industry participation by people with prior drug felony convictions.<\/p>\n Specifically, it would make it so the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), states and tribal entities could choose to eliminate a policy that prevents people with felony drug convictions in the past 10 years from being licensed to produce industrial hemp.<\/p>\n However, advocates had hoped to see more expansive language, such as what was described in\u00a0Senate Democrats\u2019 recent summary of their forthcoming Farm Bill draft<\/a>. Under that plan, there would be a mandate to eliminate the ban, rather than simply authorizing it, and it would cover all hemp producers, not just those growing it for non-extraction purposes.<\/p>\n The Senate Agriculture Committee has not yet released the draft text of their bill, so it remains to be seen if the summary description matches what will ultimately be released. Bipartisan House lawmakers filed standalone legislation last year\u00a0that would broadly lift the felony ban for would-be hemp producers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lawmakers and stakeholders have also been eyeing a number of other proposals that could be incorporated into the Farm Bill\u2014and which could come up as proposed amendments as the proposal moves through the legislative process\u2014including measures to\u00a0free up hemp businesses to legally market products like CBD<\/a>\u00a0as dietary supplements or in the food supply.<\/p>\n Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) reintroduced a bill that would triple the concentration of THC that hemp could legally contain<\/a>, while addressing multiple other concerns the industry has expressed about the federal regulations.<\/p>\n There\u2019s \u2018No Evidence\u2019 Of Widespread Fentanyl-Laced Marijuana, Federally Funded Study Finds As JD Vance Again Sounds Alarm To The Issue<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of National Institute of Standards and Technology<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Feds Award More Than Half A Million Dollars To Analyze Hemp-Derived Products That Are Growing In Popularity<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A pair of newly announced government grants totaling more than half a million dollars will fund research into hemp, marijuana and processes to differentiate the two forms of the cannabis plant from one another. One grant, of $300,000 to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will fund theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,15462],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78864"}],"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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78865,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78864\/revisions\/78865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Feds Award More Than Half A Million Dollars To Analyze Hemp-Derived Products That Are Growing In Popularity<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"