California bill would end hemp-derived THC ban

Products with limited amounts of hemp-derived THC would be legal in California again under a bill recently introduced in the state Legislature.

Products with detectable amounts of hemp-sourced THC have been banned in the state since September under emergency regulations backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

That ban would be lifted if lawmakers pass Assembly Bill 8 – introduced by Democratic Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry – but many products sold before the ban would still be prohibited.

AB8 allows hemp-derived THC products to be sold again, provided “the product complies with all applicable state laws and regulations.”

Those stipulations include existing industrial hemp regulations that:

• Cap the amount of delta-9 THC allowed in an “agricultural product, whether growing or not,” to no more than 0.3% on a dry weight basis.
• Exclude “cannabinoids produced through chemical synthesis”
• Prohibit products that “include THC isolate as an ingredient.”

California law also acknowledges the so-called THCA loophole that operators use in other states to sell intoxicating flower under the guise that it’s actually federally legal hemp.

State law cited by Aguiar-Curry’s bill calculates “total THC” as the sum of THC and THCA.

That might satisfy some hemp advocates, who have claimed that Newsom’s emergency ban effectively outlawed 90%-95% of the hemp products on the market before the prohibition.

However, AB8 likely still would exclude intoxicating hemp-derived gummies and other products that regulated cannabis merchants say present a threat to their businesses.

Regulated marijuana businesses across the country bemoan the proliferation of intoxicating hemp products that often escape the stricter rules imposed on them.