The U.S. Hemp Roundtable and industry supporters have persuaded Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin to strike a particularly restrictive provision from a hemp bill, but not without drawbacks, and Colorado and Rhode Island introduced similarly stringent bills this week.
Virginia
First, though Virginia Governor Youngkin decided to remove the provision from SB 591 that would have effectively illegalized all full-spectrum hemp products (setting a limit at 0.25mg of THC per serving or 1mg per package), he then added a 21-and-older age limit for hemp products containing any THC whatsoever.
Per the roundtable, this hardly less stringent measure would “pose tremendous burdens to retailers to differentiate full-spectrum hemp extract products from other hemp products in their inventory.”
Colorado
In Colorado, SB 22-205 aims to identify and restrict intoxicating products hiding behind “hemp” labels, but despite talks with hemp industry stakeholders to establish reasonable terms, the bill has been introduced with a number of problematic provisions.
These include requiring Colorado CBD manufacturers to destroy full-spectrum hemp products containing more than 20mg of THC per package, not requiring lab analyses when determining whether new cannabinoid products are intoxicating, providing zero protection for Colorado hemp brands shipping full-spectrum hemp products out of state, and more.
Rhode Island
Lastly, HB 7254 in Rhode Island would add blockchain tracking for hemp business transactions among other capabilities, which sounds progressive and pro-hemp on the surface, but the language regarding hemp in the bill muddles the definition together with full-blown marijuana, an issue that the Roundtable and most industry supporters are familiar with.
The Roundtable is confident they can still make headway on these bills before they progress further through their respective state legislatures, and as always, they call on their supporters for help.
We will continue to provide updates on these and other hemp legislation developments as they emerge.
