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Some takeaways from the California Cannabis Advisory Committee meeting.
Among the items on the Committee’s agenda on Thursday, the topic of hemp products drew the most robust conversation and public comment.
The format of the meeting was a departure from the norm. Typically, CAC meetings are day long, and involve plenty of updates from its subcommittees. This time, though, the agenda primarily consisted of updates from the Department of Cannabis Control and the Department of Public Health. (For those unfamiliar with the role of the Committee, it is to provide recommendations to the DCC.)
Benson Yee, the chief of CDPH’s Food and Drug Branch spoke about the department’s latest efforts around hemp. As we recently reported in this newsletter, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a directive on “illegal hemp products” in April, and CDPH has since begun ramping up action against these products.
“Could you educate us a little bit more on your findings in regards to these products being sold at these gas stations and accessibility to kids? And, I wonder if there’s any data that differentiates between toxicity, cases of children coming in, whether those are actually from industrial hemp versus from cannabis. Is there any data on that?” asked Ali Jamalian, Committee Chair.
“We have received complaints on children ingesting these types of products and those are prioritized. And we don’t have specific data to discern whether the intoxication was caused by industrial hemp or cannabis. Based on my understanding, with poison control centers, the data is mixed in together. And so it’s very hard to tease that out,” said Yee.
Amber Parrish, the executive director of the Western States Council of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, said that she wanted to “commend the conversation” about the “shadow market of hemp.”
“What we’re hearing in the unionized cannabis industry is that it is undercutting the legal market. And consumers sometimes don’t know the difference of – what the harm that they are opening themselves up to by using untested and illegal products. And we see consumers can easily buy intoxicating products at a 7-Eleven or a corner store or even on Amazon,” she said.
She continued, “Losing a cannabis shop isn’t just about a job loss. It also affects our communities. When we have workers who can’t pay their rent, they can’t buy groceries. They’re struggling, in their community.”
Christine De La Rosa, the CEO and co-founder of The People’s Dispensary, chimed in to push back on the use of the term “intoxicating hemp.”
“Even though we’re using it because it’s a big buzzword to say ‘intoxicating hemp,’ it’s actually not an intoxicant,” she said, noting that alcohol is a “neurotoxin.”
This topic drew more public comment than any other, with half of the callers saying they opposed efforts to rein in these products, and the other half calling for more clarity and regulation.
Jimena Villaseñor-Martinez, a policy analyst at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce was among those calling for clarity.
“I would like to extend first, our utmost gratitude to CDPH for their efforts to address the sale and distribution of illegal hemp products. This has been a critical step to further close loopholes in federal law that measures THC content by weight rather than intoxicating effect. However, more action is needed to decrease their accessibility, which undermines the legal cannabis retail market,” she said.
Another topic that came up was forthcoming DCC rules on labor peace agreements, a big topic at the CAC’s meeting in September, as we reported at the time.
Jacqueline Campion, the deputy director of policy and research at the DCC, said that, starting in July, cannabis businesses with 10 or more employees will be required to have LPAs – the current threshold is 20 employees.
She also gave an overview of proposed changes, including:
• “Requiring cannabis businesses to disclose how many employees they have at the time they submit their license application”
• “Provide a standard for how employees should be counted, and specify how to verify the employee count for purposes of LPA compliance”
• “Require cannabis businesses to post the labor peace agreement in an area of the premises that is accessible to employees to ensure that employees are aware of the information”
• “Specify that a labor peace agreement must continue to be active throughout the duration of the license”
• “Specify that labor peace agreements are subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act”
Some other updates from the meeting:
The CAC added a new member on Thursday, Carmela Beck, a program manager in Santa Barbara County’s Cannabis Regulation and Licensing Division.
During an open public comment period at the start of the meeting, most commenters talked about products appealing to or getting into the hands of minors.
No subcommittees have met since the full Committee’s March meeting, which, as Cannabis Wire reported at the time, focused largely on improving testing labs and on facilitating events.
A majority of Slovenians support cannabis reform.
In the midst of European Union Parliament elections, there was some cannabis news out of Slovenia, which put two non-binding cannabis questions before voters: a majority said “yes” to reform.
The first question asked whether Slovenia should allow the “cultivation and processing of cannabis for medical purposes,” to which 67% said yes. (See the result here.)
The second question asked whether Slovenia should allow the “cultivation and possession of cannabis for limited personal use,” to which 52% said yes. (See the result here.)
What the government of Slovenia does next with these results is the real question, and some movement on medical cannabis seems most plausible.
In Congress, another swipe at hemp.
Last month, as we reported, the House Ag Committee passed an amendment to the House version of the Farm Bill that would “close the loophole” on intoxicating hemp products.
Now, that same language has been added to a major spending bill: the FY 2025 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies bill, which will see a markup today in the House Appropriations subcommittee.
This doubling-down on intoxicating hemp is already sounding alarms among hemp proponents, as it provides not one but two avenues through which to implement change at the federal level, and suggests the conversation about these products is catching on in Congress.
