A bill to crack down on consumable hemp products and THC-infused beverages that had previously cleared its committee hearing is no longer being considered by the General Assembly this year.
State Rep. Debra Heffernan (D-Bellefonte) is pulling the bill Tuesday after discussions with advocates, regulators and her constituents who still had concerns, even after her substituted version was introduced.
The original bill would have only allowed retail marijuana dispensaries to sell consumable hemp products and would have allowed only specially licensed liquor stores to sell THC-infused beverages, add a $1 tax per container, limit drinks to 10mg of THC and make the Office of the Alcohol Beverage Control Commissioner the regulatory body of these beverages.
While legal recreational marijuana is still not being sold within Delaware, some businesses have tapped into the hemp industry to create intoxicating THC products.
Under the federal 2018 Farm Bill, hemp is legal in the United States and is defined as any cannabis plant with no more than .3% THC, which provides the psychoactive effect known as a “high.”
But manufacturers across the country have been operating under a virtual loophole to manipulate hemp products to produce an intoxicating effect, similar to marijuana.
The products are technically legal and are currently being sold unregulated in Delaware.
After facing fierce opposition from business owners who primarily sell hemp products, Rep. Heffernan introduced a substitute version that removed all language related to consumable hemp products.
It also changed the per container tax on THC-infused drinks to 50 cents per container.
Despite the changes, Rep. Heffernan still heard various concerns from those in the hemp industry and decided more conversations need to be had before continuing with the legislation.
"I didn’t think it would then be controversial because I thought [the opposition] was all related to consumables, but then there was additional comments that came out about the beverages, and I thought that we would just wait and work on it with stakeholders, businesses and the marijuana commissioner to come out with a bill that would have a really good chance of going forward," Rep. Heffernan said.
She also heard concerns from consumers that the bill would ban non-intoxicating CBD products, another chemical compound found within cannabis plants.
Rep. Heffernan clarifies she does not intend to target CBD products with the legislation, but rather wants to find a way to keep intoxicating hemp products away from children.
"It’s about safety for kids, and the products themselves are not tested. That’s one thing that we need to do — they’re not tested. So one, it’s about testing and safety — for quality and what’s in them — because it could also contain heavy metals or other contaminants, but also that it needs to be an age-verified," she said.
Although the bill is being scrapped, Rep. Heffernan says she intends to bring legislation back next year to tackle the issue after holding more conversations.
