According to critics, if a new legislation defining industrial hemp products is enacted, California’s hemp sector will be regulated by marijuana interests.
Richard Rose, a veteran marijuana consultant, said that based on the proposed bill, all forms of hemp commodities would have to adhere to the same regulations as cannabis, culminating in unreasonable over-regulation. This is because hemp products will be regulated by California’s AUMA (Adult Use of Marijuana Act), Cannabis
Control Bureau (BCC) and FDA (Food and Agriculture Department).
Boucher Chris, the state’s hemp veteran and Farmtiva’s CEO, said that once BCC gains control, it’ll open opportunities for fees, regulations, taxes, new penalties, and crimes.
Rose added that unclear language might mean prohibitions on all hemp commodities.
He said that although the recommended provisions focus on hemp cannabinoid, it entails all hemp commodities, oil, clothes, hemp seed food, rope, hempcrete, hemp paper, and more. He noted that California is reducing 98 percent of hemp’s value for growers, thanks to the proposed new law.
The measure (AB45) is similar to the AB228 measure that failed to advance past the legislature during the past summer.
Indicated as an urgency statute, the reform recommends that AB45 require immediate enactment to safeguard a fast-growing sector associated with extracts from California’s hemp industry and to minimize implementation inconsistency of federal and national law.
The AB45 initiative would:
- Prohibit smokable hemp, hemp beer, CBD pens and vapes, hemp wine or spirits, and alcohol-derived tinctures. This may change according to FDA regulation on CBD.
- Require retailers and producers to be authorized and share data with the BCC and law enforcement
- Classify industrial hemp raw extracts and hemp extract as safe for human consumption
- Set up an authorization system for hemp producers
- Set up conditions for laboratories that test hemp products and hemp
- Create sanitary and safety, marketing and sales guidelines for cosmetics and food
- Launch an Industrial Hemp Research Fund for supporting research at the California University
