Californians are ‘panic buying’ Hemp before an expected THC ban
Panic Buying of Hemp Products Surges Amid Governor Newsom’s Emergency Ban.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has set off a surge of “panic buying” hemp after his announcement earlier this month that he’s attempting to outlaw all hemp THC products, a category of cannabis sold outside of licensed marijuana stores.
The emergency ban could hit Californians as early as Thursday, outlawing the sale of any product that contains THC outside of a legal marijuana store. Currently, hemp THC products are sold widely through online retailers, liquor stores and convenience stores.
Californians who rely on hemp products to treat a wide range of medical conditions, including severe epilepsy, appear to be the customers who are most concerned about the ban. Paige Figi, a nationwide hemp advocate and founder of a hemp company, said some California families are 'panic buying' thousands of dollars of hemp products before the ban goes into effect.
“I know people who have cleared their bank accounts,” Figi told SFGATE on Monday. “These are veterans and first responders and moms of very sick kids. They don’t have the money to spend on these things.”
Newsom’s Department of Public Health filed the emergency ban on hemp THC, which includes a strict definition barring any product with a “detectable amount of total THC,” with the Office of Administrative Law earlier this month. OAL can either approve or deny the emergency ban depending on whether the agency believes the rule meets the statutory requirements of emergency rulemaking. An OAL spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told SFGATE it could be approved as early as Thursday of this week.
California’s proposed emergency ban comes as the hemp industry explodes in popularity across the country with a wide array of pot products, from THC-infused drinks and intoxicating vape pens to cannabis cosmetics and medical tinctures. This proliferation of hemp has occurred with few regulations and outside of state-licensed cannabis stores, causing widespread concern from public health advocates that the intoxicating products could be contaminated and be easy for underage people to access.
California lawmakers have attempted to bring the hemp industry under tighter regulations before, including with a new bill proposed this year that would have banned hemp THC outside of legal stores. That bill failed in this year’s legislative session amid concerns that it would harm certain medical patients who rely on high doses of hemp CBD, a nonintoxicating cannabis compound, to manage their conditions.
Stephanie Bohn, whose daughter uses hemp CBD to treat seizures associated with a rare neurological disease, told SFGATE that her family is “collateral damage” in Newsom’s ban. Bohn purchases hemp products that have high levels of CBD and low levels of THC to help her daughter manage her condition. The presence of THC makes them illegal according to Newsom’s proposed ban. Bonni Goldstein, a Los Angeles doctor who treats Bohn’s daughter, previously told SFGATE that the low levels of THC are not intoxicating but are medically necessary to control seizures.
The governor’s office, however, doesn’t believe parents like Bohn will have a problem finding the products they need. Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Newsom’s office, told SFGATE that the governor is aware of the parents’ worry but downplayed the problem.
“Concerns that CBD products will not be available are unfounded. The emergency regulations do not impact the ability of consumers to obtain hemp-based CBD that does not contain THC in the general commercial market or to obtain cannabis-based CBD that contains THC at dispensaries throughout California,” Gallegos said in an email.
Bohn, Goldstein and Figi disagreed, telling SFGATE that Newsom’s office is incorrect and that patients who depend on certain hemp medicines will not be able to buy those same products at state-regulated marijuana stores.
While California’s legal marijuana stores do carry some products with CBD, including products that are somewhat similar to the high-CBD tinctures patients like Bohn’s daughter rely on, marijuana stores do not sell tinctures that contain the massive amounts of CBD that patients with complex medical conditions require, according to Goldstein. Goldstein said some of her patients need to take as much as 1,600 mg of CBD a day and use specialized tinctures sold on the hemp market that can contain as much as 6,000 mg in a single bottle. Retail stores in California rarely sell tinctures with more than 600 mg of CBD in a bottle, according to SFGATE research.
“They currently do not exist in these dispensaries,” said Figi, the hemp advocate. “That’s wishful thinking if that’s how they think they are not harming consumers in California. They’re wrong.”
The patients and doctors also say that Newsom’s complete ban is missing a simple fix. They say the state could ban intoxicating hemp products while still maintaining access to these medical tinctures by following the lead of Colorado, which allows hemp products to have THC if they have a high ratio of CBD as well.
But with the hemp ban appearing imminent in California, Bohn says families like hers are frantically navigating how to care for family members who rely on hemp products. She said Newsom “turned his back on sick and disabled people” with the emergency order, which she said does not need to be implemented outside the legislative process.
“This is not an emergency,” Bohn said. “There’s no forest fire. There’s no earthquake. This is not a natural disaster. It deserves more care. And it’s a slap in the face of the disabled community that he’s not willing to take the time.”
