The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
State lawmakers want to pull unregulated cannabis products from retail shelves
HARTFORD — Lawmakers on a key legislative committee Thursday asked the state Department of Consumer Protection to help remove unregulated products developed from hemp under federal law from state retail shelves, including local convenience stores, smoke shops and gas stations.
Michelle Seagull, DCP commissioner, said that if ordered by the General Assembly — and provided with enough financial support — the agency could begin regulating the products, including edibles that are manufactured under federal farm law allowing small concentrations of THC in commercial hemp harvests, which are turned into higher-potency edibles that are nearly ubiquitous, despite a new campaign by Attorney General William Tong.
During a day-long public hearing in the General Law Committee, lawmakers, including state Rep.
Mike D’Agostino, D-Hamden, co-chairman of the panel, and state Rep. David Rutigliano, R-Trumbull, a top Republican, complained that the apparent gray area is troubling and must be addressed by the legislature.
“They really are an effort to end run around our regulatory scheme,” said D’Agostino, a key supporter of the 2022 legislation that led to the advent of adult retail sales of cannabis that began last month.
“Because hemp is legal and even though hemp itself has low THC, if you extract the THC from it and then infuse it into another product, you can end up, maybe, with higher amounts of THC than people have initially thought would be derived from hemp,” said Seagull, whose proposed bill would redefine products, including those derived from hemp. State farmers have also complained that they are being excluded from transitioning into providing products for the adult-use cannabis industry.
Rutigliano said that a recent, informal study in his town found that eight of 11 shops and gas stations had the so-called delta-8 and 9 products for sale. “Who enforces the fact that they’re not supposed to be selling this stuff ?” he said.
“We regulate the businesses that are licensed with us,” Seagull replied. “Once it is not a regulated product, it becomes more that the attorney general can take action, or law enforcement can take action. But we don’t have a police force or the type of resources that would be needed to go after every single one of these stores
that are selling these products. There is some confusion, as well, around what products are derived from hemp; what are the options to address those? An illicit market is really outside what DCP can regulate.”
“Quite frankly, I don’t care what they sell in a licensed marijuana dispensary,” Rutigliano said.
“It’s the local convenience store that has this wall of stuff that’s illegal. I mean, it should be illegal. The attorney general said this is specifically illegal. I think this is a big problem.” He said that the current compliance system that DCP uses, such as enforcing laws against under-aged drinking, should expand to the delta-8 products.
Seagull said that her agency currently has neither the resources nor the testing mechanism to tackle the issue. “Once they are outside our legal marketplaces, the enforcement is outside DCP,” she said.
Rod Marriott, drug control director for the DCP, said that the federal farm bill confused the issue. “We have been working a little bit more with local law enforcement on some of these issues, and when we get complaints we do look into those and help law enforcement identify products,” he said. “There is a difference between what’s on the label and what’s inside the product and getting those tested is a challenge.”
Marriott said that in particular, the state police laboratory doesn’t have a certification to test how much of the psychoactive THC might be in a sample. “It’s a big lift for all of us from that component,” he said. “We are working on some of this with our law enforcement folks.”
“We need to have this conversation,” D’Agostino said.
Julianne Avallone, legal director for the DCP, said there is a “lack of clarity” and ambiguity about derivatives from hemp. “It’s debatable about whether it can be an actionable offense,” Avallone said. “Hemp is not a product that has an age-restriction.”
“It seems to me that the easy answer is just: the only place where you can buy any product with any THC in it is a regulated dispensary in Connecticut, period full-stop,” D’Agostino said to Seagull and her team. “Then it’s an enforcement issue. Then it’s the (attorney general) and police. Isn’t that a black-and-white solution?”
“Sounds like a bipartisan solution,” Rutigliano said.
“There may be concern about essentially banning a federal legal product,” Avallone said. “But we legalized a federally illegal product,” Rutigliano replied about the adult-retail-cannabis law, provoking laughter in the Legislative Office Building meeting room.
“We regulate the businesses that are licensed with us. Once it is not a regulated product, it becomes more that the attorney general can take action, or law enforcement can take action.” Michelle Seagull, commissioner, state Department of Consumer Protection