The state’s marijuana regulatory agency will now provide guidelines and enforcement for specific hemp-derived offerings.
The seemingly all-out nationwide war on hemp and its myriad byproducts has now reached the nation’s youngest and largest state. According to the ,Anchorage Daily News, state officials in Alaska have approved new regulations on hemp-derived, low-dose THC products being referred to as “diet weed” by some industry experts and insiders.
Under the new rules passed by Alaskan state lawmakers, hemp-based items with intoxicating psychoactive properties will now fall under the regulatory authority of the state’s marijuana control board, requiring their removal from vape shops and other unregulated retail establishments throughout Alaska.
The new policies will also impact some nonintoxicating items, including “full-spectrum” hemp offerings designed to help treat epilepsy and pain. Because they contain a variety of cannabinoids, some of which are now restricted by the change, manufacturers must extract and combine specific chemicals in isolation or go through the cannabis regulatory process to seek approval.
Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom signed the new regulations into law on Tuesday, and they will go into effect Nov. 3.
For many hemp industry activists and stakeholders, this clampdown on hemp-derived, low-dose THC products is just another in a series of blatant political and legislative attacks by the deep-pocketed and greedy corporate cannabis lobby to destroy the young and still-developing hemp market sector.
It was, after all, members of the state’s legal marijuana industry who relentlessly advocated for the changes, claiming they would help close a safety loophole created by the 2018 Farm Bill, which allowed the sale of intoxicating, cannabis-like drugs to Alaskans under 21 and without the taxes typically applied to cannabis products.
“If you want intoxicating cannabinoids, you should visit your local friendly marijuana retailer,” said Brandon Emmett, co-chair of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s ,task force on recreational marijuana, which recommended the change earlier this year.
“If you want intoxicating cannabinoids, you should visit your local friendly marijuana retailer.”
– Brandon Emmett, co-chair of Gov. Dunleavy’s Task Force on Marijuana
For other leaders in the state’s legal and regulated cannabis market, the new guidelines were as important a priority for their industry as ,changes to the tax system governing it, which is still an ongoing battle between lawmakers and marijuana businesses.
“For one, it keeps intoxicating products out of the hands of minors, which is a big thing, and two, it makes sure that if you are selling intoxicating products, that you’re following all the same regulations that Alaskans expect, and (the state) is able to capture tax revenue from that,” said Ryan Tunseth, president of the Alaska Marijuana Industry Association.
“For one, it keeps intoxicating products out of the hands of minors, which is a big thing, and two, it makes sure that if you are selling intoxicating products, that you’re following all the same regulations that Alaskans expect, and (the state) is able to capture tax revenue from that.”
– Ryan Tunseth, president of the Alaska Marijuana Industry Association
For the small to medium-sized hemp business owners who passionately and vocally expressed their opposition to the policy change, the move is seen as Alaska’s cannabis industry using its money and political connections to step on and ultimately destroy an unwanted and viable competitor.
“Their interest isn’t about protecting the children. It’s about protecting their dollars. I have well over 13,000 (hemp-derived) edibles in stock at my store. I have no way to sell them in Alaska before November,” said Danny Ferguson of Anchorage-based Primo Alaska.
“Their interest isn’t about protecting the children. It’s about protecting their dollars. I have well over 13,000 (hemp-derived) edibles in stock at my store. I have no way to sell them in Alaska before November.”
– Danny Ferguson of Anchorage-based Primo Alaska
Despite protests by Ferguson and others, the Alaska Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office, which regulates marijuana in the state, has ordered its director, Joan Wilson, to cooperate with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, which was previously in charge of regulating hemp and hemp products, on the new guidelines and policies.
However, the battle is far from over for leaders in Alaska’s small but passionate hemp industry. Ferguson contends that the Department of Natural Resources improperly and perhaps illegally collaborated with the cannabis industry and regulators to enact the new policy changes and fully intends to help organize hemp businesses to fight the changes.
“We’re coming after them to sue them,” he said.
“We’re coming after them to sue them.”
– Danny Ferguson of Anchorage-based Primo Alaska
And this fight may be one worth waging. Other hemp businesses in states like ,Arkansas and ,Texas recently succeeded in quashing similar laws designed to outlaw products containing hemp-derived cannabinoids like delta-8 THC. Moreover, Congress is currently working on the final details of the 2023 Farm Bill, which could include provisions to “clean up” the loophole mess left behind by the 2018 iteration.
Regardless, to survive, the hemp industry will have to push back hard on the pressure applied by Big Cannabis. If it does not, the very survival of the hemp market sector, the thousands of people it employs, and the countless thousands of customers it provides life-changing products to will disappear. That outcome cannot be allowed to happen. Hemp is a flower, and flowers must be allowed to grow.