Tennessee lawmakers accepted sweeping modifications to state legislation governing hemp and THC that successfully outlaw most hemp-derived merchandise out there.
That features artificial cannabinoids equivalent to delta-8 THC in addition to merchandise marketed and offered as federally authorized “THCA,” in keeping with Nashville radio station WPLN.
The invoice now awaits Republican Gov. Invoice Lee’s signature.
Lee, an outspoken social conservative, is just not anticipated to veto the invoice.
Tennessee legislation enforcement has been seizing THCA merchandise on the idea they’re truly marijuana items.
Like different states with out a regulated marijuana market, Tennessee has seen hemp growers and sellers flourish for the reason that 2018 Farm Invoice legalized hemp manufacturing throughout the nation.
Regardless of producing as a lot as $2 million a month in tax income for the state, the Tennessee hemp trade additionally has drawn destructive consideration from lawmakers, who name the established order “the wild west.”
And so Tennessee is the newest state to regulate its legal guidelines to account for intoxicating hemp-derived merchandise.
“We’ve a state of affairs right here in Tennessee the place we’re basically coping with unregulated leisure marijuana,” Republican state Sen. Richard Briggs, the invoice’s sponsor, stated, in keeping with the Knoxville Information Sentinel.
“We’re not going to be a leisure marijuana state.”
In response, Home Invoice 1376, which handed the state Senate on a 23-9 vote final week, does the next:
Modifications the definition of THCA from a “hemp derived cannabinoid product” to a “precursor of delta-9 THC.”
Specifies that artificial cannabinoids equivalent to delta-8 THC are additionally not “hemp-derived cannabinoid merchandise.”
Places the state Alcoholic Beverage Fee in control of hemp-derived cannabinoid merchandise, reasonably than the Division of Agriculture.
The brand new legislation jeopardizes “hemp dispensaries” which have sprung up in Tennessee cities, retailers informed Nashville TV station WKRN.
