PHI’s Dr. Lynn Silver Highlights Need for Analysis of Enforcement Efforts for California’s Emergency Regulations of Intoxicating Hemp Products

In this opinion editorial piece written by The Sacramento Bee, PHI’s Dr. Lynn Silver discusses the importance of having a systematic analyses of enforcement efforts, following California Governor Newsom’s proposal for emergency regulations aimed at curbing the manufacture and sale of hemp products containing intoxicating cannabinoids such as THC or tetrahydrocannabinol. Dr. Silver is an expert in cannabis research and provides technical assistance around policies that help to protect the public’s health.

“It is quite clear how California adults are supposed to get stoned.

In 2016, state voters legalized marijuana, also known as cannabis, but under some important conditions. We agreed to tax the hell out of it. And we empowered local governments to regulate its cultivation, distribution and sale. But in recent years, California’s intoxicant policy began to get a little hazy. A botanical cousin of cannabis, hemp, began appearing on store shelves for anyone to buy. Gummies and other delivery methods have been readily for sale once confined to cannabis products that are restricted to certified dispensaries.

Getting a buzz in California had become a free-for-all. And to his great credit, Gov. Gavin Newsom has stepped into the breach.

State and local agencies – some more aggressively here in the Sacramento region than others – are trying to restore order to California’s cannabis-centric approach to intoxication. Newsom has implemented emergency regulations via the California Department of Health to ban intoxicating hemp products outside of dispensaries. The department is working with other state agencies to spread the word and crack down on haze-inducing hemp products. Locally, Sacramento County has increased penalties for their sales in the unincorporated communities under their direct control.

How well enforcement is working is anyone’s guess.

Cannabis has been a partially-managed chaos in California for a generation. It began in 1996 when voters approved cannabis for allegedly medical reasons, with scant guidance on how to grow it or prescribe it. It was a mess. California’s solution 20 years later was to pass Proposition 64 in 2016. Contrary to federal law, Prop. 64 legalized the possession of an ounce of pot for adults and imposed a 15% excise tax on all sales. It legalized its use only in homes (not outdoors or in apartments) and delegated to local governments whether to authorize its cultivation, distribution and sale.

Buoyed by 2018 federal farming legislation that legalized the production of hemp products, the industry has sought to add some kick to its products. The intoxicating ingredient in both hemp and cannabis is known short-hand as THC, long-hand as tetrahydrocannabinol. Congress seemingly limited its presence in any product to what was seemingly a tiny fraction, 0.3% by weight. But Silver has pointed out that it can only take a matter of grams in a gummy to get a Californian quite stoned.”

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Originally published by The Sacramento Bee