A coalition of 22 state attorneys general is calling on Congress to address “the glaring vagueness” that has led to legal cannabis products being sold over the counter across the country — including sometimes from vending machines or online.
A letter dated March 20 addresses the consequences of Republican lawmakers’ choice to legalize hemp production in the 2018 omnibus Farm Bill — a decision that perhaps inadvertently led to a multibillion-dollar market in intoxicating cannabis products that are arguably federally legal.
Now, the attorneys general want Congress to shutter the market it helped create. In the new Farm Bill, they want the legislature to enshrine in statute the idea that intoxicating cannabis is not federally legal — contrary to what the law currently states.
Here’s the thing: this was a super irresponsible way to legalize. It encouraged the creation of an industry using dubious extraction and synthesis technologies that are not well studied for safety. We know the effects of delta 9 THC on humans, and it’s relatively safe. Much of this new stuff are analogs of delta 9 that might be safe, but might not. You have to search out stuff that has accredited lab test results (which exist in California and some other legalized states). Rando stuff being sold at gas stations all over is sketch as hell.
The solution to that is to legalize delta 9 and bring it under a proper regulation framework for testing, not go backwards.