The Cannabis Control Board will soon be recommending to legislators to remove all potency caps for cannabis products. At its December 14 meeting, the board targeted the existing caps on potency, recommending that future legislation remove all THC caps and instead authorize consumer education programs and make safe dosage and health information easily accessible.
The board has put together an 82-page report for the Legislature on the topic of solid concentrates and the THC cap on them; THC is tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical that gives cannabis users its "high," and solid cannabis concentrates are products that are high in cannabis compounds such as THC. Examples of solid concentrates include cannabis oil, wax, and shatter.
As it stands, there is a cap on cannabis flower and solid concentrates in Vermont. Flower can have a maximum of 30 percent THC, and solid concentrates can have a maximum of 60 percent THC. In the nation, only Vermont and Connecticut have imposed a cap on THC for solid concentrates in their retail market.
The board's plan is to educate legislators about solid concentrates, how they're used and how they're made, members said. Next, board members believe that there should be a focus on consumer education to ensure safe dosing. Health officials in Massachusetts and Colorado, both well-known for their legal cannabis programs, decided the existing information about the potency caps is not enough to draw a reliable conclusion to require limits. The argument is that a high THC concentration can negatively affect mental health, but to date, federal prohibition has prevented scientific research from being done.
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