When President Donald Trump signed the 2018 farm bill into law, hemp and hemp-derived products like CBD suddenly became legal across the country.
The law created a new market that spurred farmers to grow hemp and led retailers — including gas stations and bodegas — to start selling everything from edibles to hemp flower. The products are legal so long as the hemp doesn’t contain more than 0.3% of THC — also known as “delta-9” — which is the main psychoactive compound found in recreational or medical cannabis. In simpler terms, it’s the stuff that gets you high.
But five years later, Rhode Island cannabis regulators are increasingly concerned that the farm bill has given birth to unregulated and potentially dangerous products that are exceedingly potent, attractive to teenagers, and available to anyone regardless of age.
“It’s a very messy place that we find ourselves in with these products in this unregulated market,” said Erica Ferrelli, chief of strategic planning, monitoring, and evaluation at the R.I. Office of Cannabis Regulation.
Read more at wpri.com