House Committee Approves Amendment Barring Production of Hemp-Derived Intoxicating Products
House Committee Moves to Ban Mood-Altering Hemp-Derived Products.
Members of the House Committee on Agriculture have approved an amendment to federally criminalize hemp-derived products containing mood-altering cannabinoids.
The amendment revises section 297A of the 2018 Farm Bill, which expanded the definition of hemp to include “any part of the plant, including …. extracts [or] cannabinoids that do not possess greater than 0.3 percent THC on a dry weight basis.” The Farm Bill is up for reauthorization.
The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL), excludes products from the federal definition of hemp if they contain cannabinoids that “are not capable of being naturally produced” by the hemp plant or if they are the result of a chemical synthesis.
In recent years, unregulated manufacturers have engaged in synthesizing hemp-derived CBD into a variety of novel intoxicating products, including delta-8-THC, HHC, and THC-O. This synthetic conversion process often involves the use of potentially dangerous household products. Lab analyses of unregulated products containing delta-8 and similar compounds have consistently found them to contain lower levels of cannabinoids than what is advertised on the products’ labels. Some products also possess heavy metal contaminants and unlabeled cutting agents. Other novel compounds, like THC-O, have not been tested for safety in human trials.
Studies have reported that consumers are far more likely to seek out and use these products in jurisdictions where cannabis remains criminalized.
In 2021, NORML published a paper cautioning consumers about the unregulated nature of these products.
Further debate on the Farm Bill is anticipated to take place in the coming months.
