House Republicans repeat hemp-derived THC gripes in hearing

Republican lawmakers repeated familiar concerns about hemp-derived THC products Wednesday during a congressional hearing focused on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

But even as hemp advocates begged federal authorities to regulate the industry created by the 2018 Farm Bill, no immediate change to the status quo is in sight.

The theme of the hearing in the Republican-controlled House Committee on Government and Oversight was “Restoring Trust in FDA: Rooting Out Illicit Products.”

The FDA has yet to create regulations for either CBD or nicotine vaporizers, lawmakers pointed out.

And now hemp can be added to that list.

“The FDA has failed to effectively regulate hemp-derived products which the industry themselves desperately want to be regulated,” said U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia.

The hearing not only gave Democrats an opportunity to bash President Donald Trump’s slashing of FDA jobs but also allowed cannabis skeptics such as U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, to re-air hemp-industry critiques.

Sessions’ comments hint at Republican attitudes toward hemp that might resurface when negotiations over a Farm Bill renewal resume.

Last year, U.S. Rep Mary Miller, R-Illinois, introduced a Farm Bill amendment that would have effectively banned hemp-derived THC.

That tack was followed at the state level in California last fall.

The 2018 Farm Bill, which led to a proliferation of hemp-derived THC products across the country, “doesn’t mention delta-8 (THC) anywhere,” Sessions said.

“What’s happening as a result of this are hemp products become loaded with THC.”

Sessions spoke in front of a poster with an image of rope next to brightly colored packages of products purported to having intoxicating levels of hemp-derived THC.

That’s meant to reemphasize the contention that some lawmakers who voted for the Farm Bill believed they were legalizing industrial products but instead created a barely regulated market that sometimes targets children.

“Marijuana is THC,” Sessions added.

“We have to understand that it is a dangerous product.”

Earlier at the hearing, Jonathan Miller, general counsel of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, a major Washington, D.C., lobbying group, repeated well-worn calls for a federal agency to regulate the industry – be it the FDA or someone else.

But critics pointed out that the FDA, tasked with regulating pharmaceutical drugs and food products, might not have the resources or the authority to wield power over cannabis products.