The problem is with all this legislation and proposed legislation ripping like a wildfire through the US is that there is already an industry.
Labs, producers, packagers, distribution and so on and so forth.
Legislators are in la la land if they think by just saying it on a piece of paper that it’s going away.
In the space of 3 months all around the country state authorities and inevitably federal authorities have just created themselves a enforcement nightmare that will never go away and will cost yet another fortune to police.
Even if 90% of the industry shuts up shop and walks away (fantasyland) it still leave an enforcement impossibility or, imagine this , a whole new industry sector for the Mexican cartels to fill the vaccum.
The demand has been created therefore the supply side will fill it.
Hemp Today
A proposed law in New Jersey would essentially wipe out delta-8 THC and other intoxicating hemp substances and restrict the sale of CBD to the state’s licensed pot dispensaries.
Under the bill, an amendment to the New Jersey Hemp Farming Act, the Cannabis Regulatory Commission – the state’s marijuana regulator – would have authority over non-intoxicating CBD as well as any other extract products made from hemp flowers.
The measure would shut down non-licensed hemp shops that sell products in both categories, which have proliferated throughout the state and the country.
Natural derivatives only
Most intoxicating hemp substances are synthetically produced by putting hemp-derived CBD through a process in the lab to boost the psychoactive effects of compounds present in hemp but only in trace amounts. The amendment would eliminate products containing those substances by entirely banning hemp compounds that are “not derived from naturally occurring biologically active chemical constituents.”
While one provision in the amendment would require sellers of hemp-derived intoxicants to be licensed, such licensing would be a moot point under those processing restrictions. The Attorney General would enforce the law against sale of any illicit hemp substances while the state Department of Agriculture would continue regulating hemp growing.
The bill, recently passed out of the State Senate’s Judiciary Committee by a 6–2 vote, would also set the limit for maximum THC in hemp products at a highly restrictive 0.5 milligrams per serving.
Bathtub weed
New Jersey State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon introduced a bill to regulate the psychoactive hemp compounds more than a year ago, dubbing them “the bathtub gin of the cannabis space” and warning many such products are not safe. The most recent legislation was brought forth by Sens. M. Teresa Ruiz and Paul D. Moriarty, both Democrats.
The wide availability of the illicit hemp-based synthetic intoxicants – sold as an alternative to marijuana – has been blamed for weakness in New Jersey’s adult-use pot market and the loss of millions of dollars in state tax revenue. In a report last year, the state’s Cannabis Trade Association said the recreational market is in a “doom loop” due to a gap in the regulatory regime that allows the hemp-derived products to be widely available in convenience stores, hemp shops and other common retail outlets.
New Jersey nonetheless recently licensed its 100th marijuana dispensary, and legal sales are expected to top $1 billion in 2024, the state said earlier this year.
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