Editor’s Note: The following story first appeared in The Maine Monitor’s free health care newsletter, Health Monitor, that is delivered to inboxes every other Thursday. Sign up for the free newsletter to stay informed of Maine health care news.
If you picked up a Long Coast non-alcoholic wild blueberry mojito, which contains hemp-derived THC and promises “all of the buzz, none of the hangover,” you’d experience intoxicating effects similar to those from a cannabis-infused drink.
But these hemp-derived products face none of the same regulations in Maine.
A state working group of health experts and industry producers is hoping to change that: they have recommended creating age limits for intoxicating hemp-derived products and putting a cap on the amount of THC in beverages in an attempt to regulate these products for the first time.
Hemp-derived products are regulated differently than recreational and medical cannabis because hemp plants contain a smaller concentration of THC.
However, as producers are increasingly figuring out how to concentrate that THC and use technology to derive different types of cannabinoids for highly potent products, states are racing to establish regulations. California last year passed an emergency ban on any hemp products with THC.
“Now they have a much more potent product than was ever supposed to be allowed to be grown. And it’s perfectly legal to do anything you want to with it because there are no regulations around hemp the same way that there are rules around cannabis,” said Dr. Patty Locuratolo Hymanson, a physician and former chair of the Health and Human Service Committee who now sits on the Maine working group.
The working group said the most straightforward way to protect the public is to restrict the products to adults 21 and over.
“It is THC. It’s the same cannabinoid that you get from a cannabis plant, it’s just coming from hemp,” said Alan Lapoint, a hemp beverage manufacturer who is president of 1820 Brewing Company and a member of the working group. “I think anything that has THC in it should be regulated.”
Lapoint said most of the hemp beverages he manufactures are sold in the alcohol section of stores and all the retailers he knows of ask for ID before selling the product. However, they are not required to do so.
John Hudak, director of the Office of Cannabis Policy, said his office regularly hears complaints from parents about their children being able to purchase these products.
While these products are often sold in places that are already age-restricted — like bars or liquor stores — they can also be sold in convenience stores and gas stations. Some of these establishments decide to card, but “those are choices being made at the individual business level,” he said.
“It’s pretty commonly seen by a lot of people as a problem that these products are in so many different places and available to children,” Hudak said. “We get complaints at our office even though we don’t regulate those products.”
Last year, after recognizing “Maine law provides no mechanism for limiting access to intoxicating hemp-derived products,” lawmakers directed the Department of Agriculture Conservation and Forestry to form a working group and submit recommendations.
The group found that the lack of regulation “threatens public health and safety as well as the viability of Maine’s hemp industry,” according to a letter issued by the department on Nov. 1. “Hemp growers and processors recognize that accidental intoxications or other adverse impacts on Maine children and youth would be detrimental to growers and processors.”
Lapoint said he packages hemp-derived beverages for six different brands nationally and has been doing that for a little more than a year. He sells products to 12 states and they all have hemp regulations, he said.
“Right now it’s been state-by-state because the federal government hasn’t come up with anything,” Lapoint said. “I do think the federal government is entertaining it and looking at it pretty in depth (and) ultimately it will come there, but it takes longer for the federal government to move than for the state.”
The national trend for hemp-derived beverages is to set the THC limit between 5 and 10 mg, Lapoint said, which is why he supported the working group’s recommendation to create a 5 mg cap for these products in Maine.
The group also recommended that the state create rules that make it clearer to consumers what these products are, noting that they are often “packaged intentionally to confuse consumers by mimicking either existing adult-use cannabis products or non-intoxicating consumer products.”
They suggested that the state prohibit “copycat packaging” and require that THC-infused drinks are displayed separately from non-intoxicating drinks.
