Hemp farmers say proposed bill would 'cripple' the CBD industry
Connecticut’s hemp farmers and CBD product producers say a bill intended to curb sales of illegal cannabis edibles would significantly affect their business.
“This will cripple my business,” said Duncan Markovich, co-founder of Better Ways CBD, a Branford-based cannabis therapeutics brand. “The state of Connecticut has really continued to squeeze small business owners to the point where I am now feeling that this will shut me down.”
The legislation, passed Tuesday in the state House, would reclassify some products derived from hemp as “high-THC hemp products.” It is intended, lawmakers said, to stop sales of synthetic cannabis edibles sold statewide in many CBD shops among other locations. The bill still needs to pass through the Senate and signed by Gov. Ned Lamont to become law.
"They're actually legal right now. We're actually closing that loophole and yes it's going to take product off the shelves of some of these CBD stores," state Rep. Mike D'Agostino, D-Hamden, said Tuesday. “I would hope their marketplace will adjust, just as our marketplace has adjusted, and that they will package within the limits that we allow, those THC-infused CBD products and continue to sell their CBD products.”
A federal farm bill passed in 2018 legalized the cultivation and sale of cannabis plants that contain less than 0.3 percent THC. Connecticut, along with many other states, followed the same guideline and, since then, hemp farms and the CBD products derived from the crop have popped up across the state.
The proposed legislation would alter that standard and prohibit the sale of any product with more than one milligram of THC per serving or five milligrams THC per container.
“Every product I make would have to be repackaged, redesigned and reformulated,” said Becky Goetsch, of Running Brook Farm in Killingworth and president of the CT Hemp Industry Association.
Cannabis products derived from plants that contain more than 0.3 percent THC – the chemical in marijuana that produces a high – may only legally be sold by licensed retailers. But CBD, another chemical contained in cannabis widely used in topical and edible applications – can be chemically changed into THC.
"You can currently buy products that have THC levels higher than what you can buy in our dispensaries, and that is something we have to correct," D’Agostino said Tuesday. "The problem is we have an issue with the federal law conflicting with our state laws. Federal law allows CBD products, hemp-based products, to be sold with what's called a 3-percent dry weight basis for THC. The problem with that is that it's a door you can drive a truck through."
CBD product manufacturer Jeffrey Wentzel, owner of Niantic-based U.S. HempCare, said the bill goes too far, “re-criminalizing” what became legal in 2018, though he agreed that “there are too many untested, unregulated products from out of state being sold in unregulated stores.”
“We just feel they’ve set the levels wrong and are scooping up too many of the legal, full-spectrum products which are non-intoxicating,” he said. “They’re not just making the synthetic products illegal, but they’re also re-criminalizing straight-up hemp products – which were grown from legal hemp plants and manufactured as legal hemp products without any added THC – currently legal under both state and federal law. And we’re talking about products which are non-intoxicating – which people depend on.”
Goetsch said the shift in metrics would force her to stop selling some products that do not produce a high.
“For example, a tea tin that I sell with an herbal tea blend that contains the hemp, perfectly legal -- if you test it, it's less than 0.3 percent THC,” she said. “Now, keep in mind, I sell a 1-ounce tin of loose leaf tea. There's up to 20 servings in this 1-ounce tin.”
Wentzel said he sells a bottle of softgels. They don’t produce a high, and are currently sold legally. “Our customers buy a 30-count bottle each month,” he said. “This means we can only sell five capsules per package.”
Markovich sells a 1,000-milligram tincture, intended as 30 doses, that would be illegal if the bill passes.
“I use this as pain management and nerve damage medicine daily,” he said. “I deal with individuals in this community, people with severe issues, people that rely on these products every single day.”
State Rep. David Rutligano, R-Trumbull, said Wednesday that the law would just require a shift in packaging.
“Like every other business they'd have to adapt to regulation,” he said. We’re not outlawing the product, we're telling you that you can't put it in a package that exceeds this amount, so they just would have to adjust the package.”
Goetsch believes that it’s not so simple. The law, she said, would make her products less effective and less desirable, and harm an already struggling industry.
“The Connecticut hemp community has shrunk from over 200 farms to just a couple dozen,” she said. “Those of us who have survived have done so by building a loyal customer base in our communities who rely on us for safe and effective CBD products. We have spent years developing our hemp formulations and craft CBD products, so to mandate that we repackage and reformulate our non-intoxicating hemp products will have a devastating impact on our already struggling farmers.”
“A lot of our products are going to become illegal,” she said.
