This article is from Tennessee Lookout

Critics of new rules governing Tennessee’s hemp retail industry say the state is on the verge of snuffing out a lucrative business and sending customers underground.

Hemp farmers pleaded with lawmakers this week not to remove the “flower” from retail sales with rules that are supposed to mesh with state law. 

“I think it all needs to be regulated, but we can’t take the flower off the market,” Soddy-Daisy hemp farmer Chris Summerall told the Legislature’s Government Operations Committee Wednesday.

Otherwise, he said, customers will be driven to the “black market,” which conjures images of street-corner nickel bag deals.

One wonders whether law enforcement is behind this rule because when it swoops in for a bust, are officers confiscating weed or hemp?

Hemp and marijuana are related as forms of cannabis. But marijuana is considered a controlled substance that contains higher levels of THC, the stuff that makes people high, while hemp has no psychoactive effects even though it can be intoxicating. 

Apparently, the flower is the part that gives people a buzz without making them have odd thoughts. The THC level is supposed to be .3% or less, yet hemp can morph after testing and reach higher rates, especially once the user “decarboxylates,” or lights up.

House Majority Leader William Lamberth, who backed the rule change this week, said it’s needed to ensure products sold at your local 7-Eleven are safe for customers.

Democratic state Rep. Gloria Johnson, who voted against the rule, countered that claim by saying Lamberth led the state Department of Agriculture in “killing a $200 million industry in Tennessee.”

Lamberth, a Portland Republican, said Thursday via text the new rule won’t come “remotely” close to destroying the hemp industry here. 

“Hundreds of products will still be available on the market, just not those that contain dangerous contaminants or extremely high THC levels,” he said.

Anything at .3% THC or below is fine, Lamberth said, but joints and buds (sorry, I meant smoking products) above that level can’t be sold.

Lamberth also said the rule involves retailers and manufacturers, not farmers “unless they are vertically integrated,” and added that most of the products come from outside Tennessee.

That must be why people such as Jeff Sullivan of Snap Dragon Hemp out of Chattanooga told the committee this “one rule that would eliminate the THCA flower would get rid of most of the retail industry in the state of Tennessee.”

Farmers licensed by the state have been growing hemp for the retail market since 2015, and the rule represents a change likely to be challenged in court. Nothing like changing rules in the middle of the game, as the Department of Agriculture appears to be turning its back on farmers. 

Asked Wednesday if some products become similar to marijuana at some point, the state’s go-to scientist, after whispering to attorneys, said, “Yes.”

If this marathon committee proved anything, though, it was that people are all over the place philosophically. 

State Sen. Janice Bowling, a Tullahoma Republican who has moments of lucidity and sponsored medical marijuana bills but failed to pass them, said the state is trying to put new rules on something that isn’t a controlled substance. She sought a vote to scuttle the rule but couldn’t pass it.

In fact, an emergency rule is in effect until Dec. 25, but it probably hasn’t reached the marketplace yet where plenty of products are selling. You can’t drive a hundred yards without seeing a cannabis store, which should alert people that we have a high demand and, thus, need a strong supply. They even have a cannabis outlet right next to the grocery store in rural Linden, which makes things a lot easier than hiding a crop from the revenue man.

State Rep. John Ray Clemmons accused Republicans – though not all of them on the committee – of voting for enforcement of a rule “that isn’t fully supported by the statute, is arguably unconstitutionally vague and risks the livelihood of family farmers, business owners and thousands of employees statewide.”

For the technical-minded, the permanent rule will go into the Legislature’s omnibus bill to be considered in March. Some lawmakers call it a “murky” matter, But so far this is one step forward for the anti-cannabis crowd and a huge step backwards for cannabis, even though a majority of Tennesseans support some sort of legalized cannabis for medical purposes. 

Now pass the decarboxylation device, please, before it’s too late. 

_ Sam Stockard