By Ruth Hill R.N.
A new study from an industry advocacy group in California examines the content of dozens of unregulated intoxicating “hemp” products that are easily available in the Golden State despite being banned by state law. The study, entitled “The Great Hemp Hoax,” was released on February 13th by the San Diego/Imperial Counties Joint Labor Management Cannabis Committee. Cannabis Corner (CC) cautions a labor-management committee study should be evaluated with a jaundiced eye.
The study’s findings indicate that many so-called hemp products are infused with synthetic psychoactive cannabinoids, which can actually make users feel loopier than natural Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). This is false and misleading. March and Ash and their labor committee are assuming only hemp products are the ones sold on Amazon or the Internet.
“Hemp Is Really Hemp”
Project CBD’s article about this study intends to instill fear in the public about hemp. Many legitimate hemp cultivators test their products the same way marijuana products are tested. CC never recommends the products referred to in the “The Great Hemp Hoax” study. To blast “hemp” as not really hemp is slanderous. The only reason legitimate hemp cultivators cannot sue them is that they are living in an illegitimate market caused by Newson’s ban. Other states are producing tested hemp medical products.
March and Ash are losing market share from the many millions of users who cannot tolerate the pure THC in marijuana. March and Ash and Embarc employ representatives of UFCW Local 135, which sponsored the study. What is really exploding in the marketplace is the highly effective CBD, CBN, and CBG cannabinoids that are not intoxicating. Dispensaries are losing market share due to the state and city being drunk on the high taxes imposed. CA is so over-regulated and corrupt that they depend on these taxes, which they do not get on hemp.
Hemp cultivators do not have inefficient plant cultivation, as Dewitt states. Most legitimate hemp cultivators grow marijuana plants and remove the THC. They do not grow massive amounts of hemp, as Devitt shouts about. CC clients do not buy the San Diego Lab-tested products. These 104 products marketed as “hemp” chewable gummies and vapes are purchased online from 68 brands. These include well-known names like Cookies, Cheech and Chong, Cali Extrax, Dome Wrecker, Torch, and Cake. We do not slander an industry based on the lowest performers.
Going by Dewitt’s theory, you could say most marijuana products are not assessed effectively. Look at product recalls from the California Cannabis Department. Are we then going to say there is an Intoxicating Marijuana Swindle? CC recommends readers purchase from March and Ash dispensaries for their THC products. But most of the products ingested by CC readers are safe, tested hemp.
It’s Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature
Yes, CC agrees there is sloppy language in the 2018 US Farm Bill, which inadvertently opened this “Pandora’s box” of unregulated psychoactive designer compounds by legalizing cannabinoids other than THC that were derived from “hemp” as defined by federal law — that is, cannabis with under 0.3 percent THC. But that does not mean all hemp is a swindle. Many legitimate hemp sellers embrace the same love of cultivating this miraculous cannabis plant and then extract the THC to the legal limit.
The Vape of Things to Come?
There are many vape products that contain only CBD and CBN cannabinoids, which can be extracted from the marijuana plant. To make decisions on hemp, CC needs to see legitimate hemp products studied from legitimate growers, not just the ones on the Internet. CC is well aware of the products containing between 2,000 and 14,000 milligrams of THC equivalency per vape. But these are not legal in marijuana or hemp. CC shares Devitt’s sincere concern for safety. But let us not drum up fear. After all, hemp is cannabis only distinguished by the arbitrary limit of 0.3% THC.
There is no Intoxicating Hemp Swindle. Let us find a way to bring all cannabis products into the market by changing the Farm Bill to bring hemp products into dispensaries where the public gets reliable cannabis with THC or without THC.
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