United States: Market and legal data for the cannabis sector

18th September 2024: US - Utah: The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food has proposed a rule that would prohibit “artificially derived cannabinoids”, which would specifically include HHC. It would define an “artificially derived cannabinoid” as “a chemical substance that is created by a chemical reaction that changes the molecular structure of any chemical substance derived from the cannabis plant” but would exclude cannabinoids extracted from the plant or those created via decarboxylation. The proposed rule is under public comment until 15th October.
17th September 2024: US - South Carolina: Solicitor general Robert Cook issued an opinion letter finding that non-alcoholic beverages containing up to 0.3% delta-9 THC that are derived from hemp are legal under federal and state law. The opinion came in response to a question presented by the speaker of the state House of Representatives asking for clarity, as hemp-derived THC beverages are proliferating across the US.
16th September 2024: New Jersey: Senate Bill (SB) 3235 has been signed into law by governor Phil Murphy. SB 3235 requires a licence from the Cannabis Regulatory Commission or certain liquor licences to sell intoxicating hemp products and would ban cannabis products “not derived from naturally occurring biologically active chemical constituents”. The new law defines intoxicating hemp products as any hemp product with a total THC concentration greater than 0.5 mg per serving or 2.5 mg per package and prohibits their sale to anyone under the age of 21.
9th September 2024: US - California: Governor Gavin Newsom announced he has issued proposed emergency regulations that would outlaw hemp products with any “detectable amount of total THC”. The new regulations require that industrial hemp food, beverage and dietary products intended for human consumption have no detectable THC or other intoxicating cannabinoids per serving; set a minimum age of 21 for purchasing hemp products; and limit the number of servings of hemp products to five per package. According to the state, the emergency regulations “will take effect immediately upon approval by the Office of Administrative Law. Sellers must begin to implement purchase restrictions and remove consumable hemp products containing any levels of detectable THC from shelves”.
6th September 2024: US - Federal: The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that hemp-derived tetrahydrocannabinol acetate (THCO) meets the federal definition of hemp and is therefore legal under federal law. The court considered the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)’s interpretation that THCO is synthetic because it does not occur naturally in the cannabis plant and therefore does not meet the Farm Bill definition of hemp. However, the court rejected this argument, finding more persuasive a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that found hemp-derived delta-8 THC legal under federal law. In its reasoning, the Fourth Circuit disagreed that THCO is a synthetic substance when derived from organic hemp material and found that the Farm Bill is “unambiguous” in allowing hemp derivatives like THCO if the delta-9 THC concentration is not more than 0.3%.
5th September 2024: US - California: The Office of Administrative Law has approved the amendment to Section 4890 in Title 3 of the California Code of Regulations pertaining to the definition of “harvest”. According to the amendment, “harvest” means the collection of any portion of industrial hemp plant at the termination of the cultivation process for the purpose of processing, distribution, storage or sale. The definition of “harvest” does not include material removed from the plant for sampling that is notified to the commissioner for nutrition, diseases or pests; maintenance of stock; male culling; thinning; or disposal.
3rd September 2024: US - Missouri: The Division of Cannabis Regulation (DCR) has issued a cannabis recall notice saying that the recalled products were not compliantly tracked in the statewide track-and-trace system (Metrc). Consumers who purchased the recalled items are advised to discontinue use immediately. Any remaining products should be discarded or returned to the dispensary where they were purchased. The division has provided two Excel sheets listing the recalled products. The first one is a “product recall list”, which contains identifiers used by manufacturers to track the products. The second is a “consumer recall list”, which includes numbers customers are more likely to see on their products.
2nd September 2024: US - Nebraska: The office of secretary of state Bob Evnen has announced that the statutory measures to legalise medical cannabis have met signature requirements and will qualify for November’s election ballot once local officials complete the verification and certification process. One ballot measure – the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act – would shield medical cannabis patients from penalties for possessing and using cannabis when they have a written recommendation from a healthcare practitioner, as well as shield prescribing doctors. The second – the Medical Cannabis Regulation Act – would establish the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission and require it to promulgate regulations for the production and distribution of medical cannabis.
2nd September 2024: US - California: Assembly Bill (AB) 1775 has been passed by the Assembly and now heads to the governor’s desk. AB 1775 would allow cities to authorise dispensaries to serve food and non-alcoholic drinks, and even host live entertainment, alongside the consumption of cannabis products. Governor Newsom vetoed the prior version of a similar proposal, saying that he felt “concerned this bill could undermine California’s long-standing smoke-free workplace protections”. The current version of the bill includes new provisions aimed at addressing these concerns, such as allowing cities to impose ventilation standards and ensuring cannabis café employees can use protective masks – with employers covering the costs. The measure would also allow local governments to decide whether to allow cannabis cafés to operate instead of automatically legalising them statewide.
2nd September 2024: US - Florida: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said he believes voters will support a November ballot initiative that would legalise recreational cannabis for adult use. He posted a supportive statement of Amendment 3, arguing that “someone should not be a criminal in Florida, when this is legal in so many other states”. Trump highlighted that he wants lawmakers to follow up on legalisation if voters approve it – however, to do so by passing a law to ban public cannabis consumption. He said: “We need the State Legislature to responsibly create laws that prohibit the use of it in public spaces.”
27th August 2024: US - Federal: The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has published a notice informing of a public hearing on 2nd December to address the agency’s proposal to reschedule cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. The notice is not currently published in the Federal Register but will be officially published on Thursday, 29th August. Anyone interested in participating in the hearing who can prove they are a “person adversely affected or aggrieved by” the rule will have 30 days from when the notice is officially published to file a request with the DEA.
26th August 2024: US - Missouri: Missouri secretary of state Jay Ashcroft blocked governor Michael Parson’s emergency order banning unregulated hemp-derived intoxicating food products, saying that the proposed order did not meet legal requirements. Recreational and medical marijuana are both legal in Missouri, but the governor’s executive order was aimed at particular THC compounds that are not regulated, including delta-8. The order was supposed to take effect on 1st September, pending Ashcroft’s approval of the emergency rules, and now that will likely be delayed for at least six months, Parson said in a letter. Parson has said a ban on hemp-derived THC products is necessary because children have mistaken them for candy. He further said that he ordered the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control to resubmit the emergency rule on hemp-derived THC.

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