The US Hemp Roundtable recently sent a letter to Senators Chuck Schumer, D-NY, Ron Wyden, D-OR and Cory Booker, D-NJ, to discuss issues with the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA) that was introduced by the three. According to the letter, certain provisions now contained within the proposed legislation could decimate the industry if they become law.
A central issue is how to determine at what level THC can be considered a minor constituent and where it crosses the line to become an outright intoxicant.
The ‘industrial hemp’ definition
Existing federal legislation defines ‘industrial hemp,’ the source material for hemp/CBD dietary supplements and foods, as having less than 0.3% delta-9 THC by dry weight. Growers, botanists and agronomists have invested a significant amount of time and capital in recent years to develop cultivars and ways of growing them that can meet that standard. Despite this accrued experience, crops can and still do go ‘hot,’ i.e., express too much THC, which requires them to be destroyed.
Even with that effort, THC still shows up in CBD products on the shelf, especially in those that are labeled as ‘full spectrum.’ At one time, the trend in the industry was toward these kind of products, because it appeared that the US Food and Drug Administration was leaning toward viewing CBD isolate as a drug form.
Now it may be that the residual THC naturally contained within a full spectrum extract of industrial hemp could become an Achilles heel. The CAOA bill mandates that a product must have less than 1 mg of delta-9 THC per 100 grams to be considered non intoxicating.