MJ moment

A new congressional bill seeks to build upon the federal legalization of hemp by providing cannabis businesses with additional flexibility that’s been sought after by industry stakeholders, as well as remove a controversial ban on market participation by people with prior drug convictions. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) filed the Hemp Advancement Act on Tuesday. The legislation would provide several critical reforms, including by increasing the legal THC threshold for hemp products from the current 0.3 percent to 1 percent on a dry weight basis. It could additionally, however, upend the growing market for delta-8 THC products by officially counting the isomer in allowable THC amounts. It would also address an issue related to THC levels for in-process hemp. Businesses previously raised concerns about the THC threshold prescribed under existing federal statute because the process of hemp extraction can temporarily raise the THC content in a crop in a way that could make them liable for enforcement action. Under Pingree’s bill, in-process hemp would not be subject to any THC limits as long as the final product doesn’t exceed one percent. The proposal would also remove a requirement under the 2018 Farm Bill that the crop can only be tested at laboratories registered by the Drug Enforcement Administration, a prohibitive policy that the lawmaker highlighted with a supplementary map showing the limited number of such facilities across the country.

“There are insufficient testing facilities. Right here in Maine, we don’t have one at all—and there’s two that cover all of New England,” Pingree told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview on Monday, adding that there are non-DEA-certified labs that are “perfectly capable of doing this.” “To eliminate this DEA requirement would take away one more obstacle that farmers are currently facing,” she said. “Again, it takes it out of…

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Source : Hemp Could Have More THC Under New Congressional Bill That Aims To Fix Regulatory Issues For Expanding Industry

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