Smokable hemp may be moved from the rolling tray to the chopping block under a pair of bills filed this week in Tennessee.
The bills would essentially ban the state’s most popular hemp products, including THCa flower that, when smoked, produces a high much like marijuana.
Members of Tennessee’s hemp industry, which was first regulated in 2023, have been expecting a proposal like this for a while now. Retailers estimate that THCa products make up anywhere between 60 and 90% of hemp sales across the state.
(READ MORE: Tennessee retailers: $200M hemp industry threatened by imminent rule)
“It would get rid of everything,” said Josh Manning, chief executive of Chattanooga-based Snapdragon Hemp. “That would get rid of all flower — CBD flower, THC flower.”
The bill, if passed, would make Tennessee’s hemp laws much more like Georgia’s, Manning said. In Georgia, smokable flower is essentially illegal, leaving hemp shops to sell things like tinctures and low-dose gummies.
CBD flower, unlike THCa, isn’t psychoactive when burned but would still likely fail the regulatory tests that limit what can be sold, Manning said.
Manning said he hopes the bill doesn’t get traction, and that bills trying to legalize medical or recreational marijuana finally make it through the statehouse.
Sponsor Rep. Ed Butler, R-Rickman, said he filed the bill in response to what he sees as a “public health crisis” particularly among young people. Butler said he sees psychoactive hemp like THCa as a gateway drug.
“It’s kind of a chink in the armor, and they found a crack and they kind of exploited it,” Butler said by phone. “I just can’t see a benefit in people getting high. There may be a medical benefit … but they’re not smoking it. They’re rubbing an oil or an ointment or something. That’s completely different than smoking a joint.”
Both hemp and marijuana come from the same plant — cannabis.
Legally, hemp has less than a 0.3% concentration of delta-9 THC, the main psychoactive compound found naturally in cannabis.
Marijuana, which is illegal in Tennessee, typically has much higher concentrations of delta-9 THC. Weed sold on the street typically has around 20-30% delta-9.
Typically hemp is harvested earlier than marijuana, since cannabinoids like delta-9 become stronger the longer they’re on the plant.
THCa is the chemical precursor to delta-9, and converts to the psychoactive compound when heated. That’s why THCa is most popular in smokable hemp or vapes.
Earlier this week, a Nashville judge extended an injunction to keep THCa products legal in Tennessee through June 5. The injunction came after industry groups sued over rules made by the state’s department of agriculture in response to the 2023 regulations.
(READ MORE: THCa sales to continue in Tennessee — for now — following judge’s ruling)
More than half of Hamilton County voters support legalizing marijuana, and another 20% support making medical use products legal.
Legal hemp has complicated how law enforcement cracks down on illegal marijuana, said Tommy Farmer, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Dangerous Drug Task Force.
“Back in the day, if it looked like a duck, it walked like a duck, then it was a duck,” Farmer said in a video interview. “It was a much cleaner, easier way — it’s weed or it’s not. With these changes in definitions, it just turned everybody on their ears.”
The 2023 law created a loophole by allowing THCa products, said Mike Lyttle, assistant director of forensic services for TBI.
“As an analogy, you’ve made ice legal in THCa, but you’ve made water illegal in THC,” Lyttle said in a video interview. “You can’t have one without the other. So that’s really where we are.”
HEMP AND ALCOHOL
Another bill filed this week would allow the Tennessee board that regulates alcohol sales to regulate hemp products.
Sponsor Sen. Richard Briggs, R-Knoxville, said it makes sense for the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission to regulate cannabis shops because they’re already set up for enforcement at liquor stores. That could include stings with underage buyers, he said.
“Some people would like to ban all this stuff entirely,” he said. “But I think the horse is out of the barn. The hemp industry has gotten too big, and the best we can hope to do right now is to protect the public.”
Briggs said lawmakers learned a lot about THCa after passing his hemp regulation bill in 2023, which inadvertently allowed those intoxicating products.
“I don’t think we anticipated, or maybe we didn’t completely understand what happened to THCa,” Briggs said by phone. “I don’t even remember it coming up, to be perfectly honest, a couple years ago.”
Kelley Hess, executive director of the hemp lobbying group Tennessee Growers Coalition, said she believes the bill is an attempt by the alcohol industry to reclaim some of the revenue lost to legal hemp products.
“Alcohol sales are down because more people are choosing to use hemp drinks and legal hemp products, or just using cannabis in general,” Hess said by phone. “More people are coming to realize that alcohol isn’t great for you.”
The bill would add a wholesale tax on hemp products, at 1 cent per milligram, and also prohibit hemp retailers from selling directly to customers online.
Hess said she worries that banning THCa would send more people to the unregulated black market for cannabis. The coalition is encouraging people to reach out to their lawmakers about the bills, and Hess said she hopes they listen.
“These products are not going away,” she said. “The black market loves this bill.”
For Snapdragon, online sales account for around 5% to 7% percent of its sales, Manning said.
The proposal would also ban hemp products from being sold at convenience stores and gas stations, allowing sales only at 21+ establishments.
“There’s a lot of gas stations that don’t do things the right way,” Manning said. “But at the end of the day, if we’re going to do this type of program, it needs to be done under a medical or a recreational program. Because this is kind of like recreational rules.”
Manning said he hears from customers every day confused about the state of legal cannabis in Tennessee.
“I hear, ‘When is it going to be legal? When is it going to be legal?'” Manning said. “I’m like, man, it’s the best it’s ever going to be right now.”
Contact Ellen Gerst at egerst@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6319.
Smokable hemp may be moved from the rolling tray to the chopping block under a pair of bills filed this week in Tennessee. Read More
