Citing concerns over public health, California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed heavy restrictions on “intoxicating hemp products” Friday. Through an emergency regulation, Newsom proposed removing food and beverage products containing hemp extract from stores within the Golden State.
“We will not sit on our hands as drug peddlers target our children with dangerous and unregulated hemp products containing THC at our retail stores,” Gov. Newsom said in a press release. “We’re taking action to close loopholes and increase enforcement to prevent children from accessing these dangerous hemp and cannabis products.”
The executive order puts very stringent regulations on hemp-derived THC products, including delta-8 and delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol along with 30 new cannabinoids added to the state’s list. The new regulations ban any detectable quantity of THC from industrial hemp products meant for human consumption — which includes food, food additives, beverages and dietary supplements. This means that the new milligram limit for hemp-derived THC products is zero, relegating all THC product sales to the recreational adult-use and medicinal dispensary channels.
The regulations also age-gate hemp extract products at 21 years or older with packages restricted to 5 servings. The move is intended to place harsher restrictions on the hemp extract industry as the incidence of children unknowingly buying and consuming THC-containing products has risen with the explosive growth of intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids like Delta-8 and Delta-9 THC, according to Newsom.
Newsom lobbied for California’s Proposition 64, or the Adult Use Of Marijuana Act which legalized cannabis in the state, as lieutenant governor in November 2016. As governor he went on to help pass the state’s Assembly Bill 45 in November 2021, which addressed the use of industrial hemp as an adulterant in food and beverage.
“None of us expected the kind of exploitation that we’ve experienced in the hemp industry since,” he said in a Friday afternoon press conference. “What we’re doing today, as relates to emergency regulations, is because of that exploitation – because of the greed of many folks in the industry.”
The news comes on the back of a failed legislative attempt in August to amend existing oversight of intoxicating hemp products to the state’s Department of Cannabis Control.
“We’re here to regulate this industry. We were hopeful that we were going to get that done,” Newsom said Friday. “Assemblywoman [Cecilia] Aguiar-Curry had a bill to address the issues and address some of the complexities and nuances. We don’t want to kill the hemp industry.”
Industry stakeholders like the U.S. Hemp Roundtable criticized the governor’s approach calling it a “betrayal of California hemp farmers, small businesses, and adult consumers,” in a statement from the lobbyist’s general counsel Jonathan Miller.
“After having supported AB 45, which created a sound regulatory framework for the manufacture and sale of hemp products, Newsom’s Administration fell on the job and failed to take any steps to enforce it,” Miller said. “Now, instead of addressing legitimate regulatory concerns shared by all good actors in the cannabis space – such as establishing reasonable policies to keep intoxicating products out of the hands of children – Governor Newsom instead has proposed a complete retail prohibition on 90-95% of popular hemp products for adults, including most non-intoxicating CBD products that he purports to support in his public communications.”
California is the latest in a series of state-led approaches to rein in the hemp-derived THC market. Indiana, Iowa, Oregon, Missouri and New Hampshire are just some of the states using enforcing, serving size and cannabinoid formulation requirements to heavily limit the reach of hemp extract businesses.
As with many other states, California’s executive emergency action will almost definitely be challenged in court.