Louisiana senators say Legislature duped into legalizing hemp products loaded with THC
Two Louisiana state senators said the Legislature was hoodwinked into legalizing a consumable hemp product market with enough THC levels to make users high, likening it to recreational marijuana.
"Last session we unknowingly created a recreational THC market in Louisiana," Republican Monroe Sen. Stewart Cathey said Tuesday during a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing that he chairs.
Cathey's committee was debating his Senate Bill 219 which would roll back the limit of THC that can be contained in consumable hemp products. The committee voted to advance the bill to the full Senate for debate.
THC is the chemical that creates a high or euphoria and is often credited with helping manage pain, stress and insomnia, among other conditions. Hemp's THC levels are typically lower than in its cannabis-cousin marijuana, but it can be concentrated in hemp products like edibles and sold at CBD stores.
"If we're going to legalize (recreational THC), it needs to be done openly and honestly, which wasn't done," Republican Monroe Sen. Jay Morris said. "It was sold to the Legislature as if we weren't allowing psychoactive materials."
Lawmakers, regulators and entrepreneurs in the exploding hemp industry are grappling with which consumable products from gummies to inhalables to frozen drinks containing THC are legal and how they can be packaged and sold, especially in relation to serving sizes.
Cathey's bill would limit the amount of THC in consumable products to 2 milligrams, down from the current 8-milligram limit.
A second bill by House Speaker Clay Schexnayder would make tweaks to the current law, but not to the extent of Cathey's. Schexnayder has shepherded four bills ushering the hemp industry into Louisiana since hemp was legalized on a federal level in 2018.
Leafly, a website focused on cannabis use and education, says a 5-milligram dose is "when a high begins to set in for many new or inconsistent consumers."
"It was not the intent of the Legislature to authorize a statewide flood of unregulated THC psychoactive drug marketplace," Cathey said.
Hemp entrepreneurs testified that Cathey's bill would destroy the burgeoning industry and wipe out thousands of jobs.
"This bill would absolutely gut this industry," said Jason Garsee of Monroe, owner and chief executive of Str8W8 Cannabis and president of the Gulf South Hemp Association. "This bill you're carrying right now is putting people out of business in your town, state and district. It would decimate my investment and my business."
John Ford of Lafayette is president of Black Farmers Hemp.
"This doesn't make any sense," he said of Cathey's bill. "We're trying to grow an industry."
Casey White owns two CBD stores, called Pippi's Purpose, in Abbeville and Lafayette.
"I've spent my life savings to open these stores," White said. "This would destroy our industry."
Blaine Jennings, owner of Virgin Hemp Farms in Lafayette, said Cathey's bill is "a direct attack on the thousands of business owners in this booming industry."
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Louisiana senators say they were duped into legalizing hemp THC products
