The Washington Legislature adjourned it’s short session last week with very little done on the cannabis laws. They did pass a law changing all use of the word “marijuana” in the state code to “cannabis”. And beefed up the cannabis laboratory testing protocols.
They could not reach agreement as to how to regulate hemp-derived products, specifically delta-8 THC. Hemp and it’s derivatives were legalized federally in the 2018 Farm Bill. Even though hemp and cannabis are the same plant, hemp has a minuscule amount of delta-9 THC, the plant’s molecule that causes intoxication, or the high. Where pot is legal, the states regulate this molecule, but it’s federally illegal.
A chemically-close molecule is delta-8 THC, which can be extracted from hemp plants, provides affects similar to delta-9, is federally legal, and is not regulated by the states. Products containing delta-8 can therefore be made by anyone and sold anywhere with no limits. If one is seeking a high, delta-8 products can be acquired at gas stations and convenience stores, without the age limit, state taxes, and very burdensome regulatory conditions.
The Liquor and Cannabis Board claims, but has no supporting law, that it should be regulating these products because they have the same public health risk profile as the products from the regulated industry. It proposed a law attempting to fix this by giving them the additional legal authority necessary to oversee this industry.
When WA passed Initiative 502 in 2012 we thought we were legalizing marijuana, pot, weed, the green stuff you roll into joints and smoke, and that no one would go to jail for consuming it. At the federal level hemp was just as illegal as regular marijuana, though usually at only a fraction of it’s ability to provide a high. I-502 authorized a regulatory body to oversee the “weed” industry, issue licenses, charge taxes, and enforce the state laws.
I-502 did not authorize the regulation of hemp or it’s products, hence the need for a new law which granted this authority to the LCB. But, the LCB proposal involved regulating the entire suite of cannabinoids currently known to be produced by the cannabis plant. The existing licensed industry called bullshit on this, for a variety of reasons.
The cannabis industry has been amazingly innovative in the last ten years, discovering all sorts of uses for the cannabinoids in marijuana. They felt the LCB would stifle that innovation. But they also felt that by not regulating this new delta-8 industry it would evolve into a separate industry supplying the market without the costs of regulations and taxes. And, there’s a fear that hemp-derived cannabinoids would be blended into the regulated products without the testing and research into their safety. It was a long list of pros and cons, and heated arguments ensued. The law did not pass.
So WA (and most other states) cannot regulate delta-8 products or any of the other CBD varieties which can get you just as high as the expensive legal stuff you’d get from licensed stores. By the time they do change the laws, that industry should be thriving and products available everywhere. And this new industry will have considerable lobbying power to prevent the state from taking it over.
There are many subtle points about this issue, but consider this: The new industry is based on the legal hemp industry defined by federal law, which “trumps” state laws. The established legal industry depends on state laws, which are also “trumped” by federal laws making marijuana illegal. It was most entertaining watching the lawmakers twist themselves into knots trying to figure this out.