In Washington State, ingestible hemp products are already effectively banned, but a new soon-to-be-law from the federal government could still shake things up. In passing a bill to reopen the government, Congress banned intoxicating hemp products.
Hemp is a type of cannabis that can still get someone high, but has a lower THC level. In many states, the product is not regulated at all. But in Washington, state lawmakers passed a bill two years ago that essentially eliminated the marketplace for those products. Cannabis Programs Manager at the Washington State Department of Agriculture, Trecia Ehrlich, said the state went from 200 licensees in 2020 to 40 this year due to that law. Ehrlich said those 40 growers in the state are under out-of-state contracts to sell their product.
"I think a lot of them probably won't produce hemp in the future because they won't have anywhere to sell it. It was already very challenging for them to find buyers," she said. "So it will challenge the marketplace growth."
"We've definitely had farmers who came into growth because they were interested in cannabinoids and then through that found that they wanted to produce insulation, produce flooring, produce products for sustainable building," she said.
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