Republican-backed legislative efforts to impose arbitrary THC potency caps on certain cannabis products are likely dead for the session.
House Bill 1269 and Senate Bill 7050 sought to preemptively ban adults’ access to cannabis flower products containing more than 30 percent THC. While adult-use cannabis products are not yet legal in Florida, voters may have the opportunity to decide on the issue in November.
Senate members failed to advance SB 7050 to the floor, and they are unlikely to consider the House’s version of the bill.
NORML actively opposed both bills. A pre-written letter provided by NORML was sent to lawmakers over 2,100 times in the past few weeks. It states: “Don’t stifle the adult-use cannabis market before Floridians have even had a chance to vote for it. Prohibiting adults from accessing these products from state-licensed retailers will not eliminate consumers’ demand for them. Rather, it will encourage consumers to seek out high-THC products in the unregulated market. It will also move the production of these products exclusively underground. This undermines the primary goal of legalization, which is to provide patients with safe, above-ground access to lab-tested products of known purity, potency, and quality.”
NORML has long opposed the imposition of THC potency caps. In a recent commentary in The Boston Globe, NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano opined: “Unlike alcohol, THC is incapable of causing lethal overdose in humans. This fact is acknowledged by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, which has concluded, ‘No deaths from overdose of marijuana have been reported.’ Typically, when consumers encounter higher-potency products, they consume lesser quantities of them. … Rather than banning these products, regulators should provide the public with better safety information about the effects of more potent products, and they should continue to ensure that legal products do not get diverted to the youth market.”
Earlier this year, lawmakers in New Hampshire repealed proposed THC cap provisions after hearing opposition from NORML and other groups. In Washington, lawmakers also significantly amended legislation that initially sought to restrict the sale of higher-THC products to young adults.
Information on these bills and other pending legislation is available from NORML’s Take Action Center. Additional information is available from NORML’s fact-sheet, ‘THC Potency Concerns: Are Stronger Products More Problematic?’
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