The retailers should pay for the product if you are going to let them sell it.
By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent
The Missouri state legislature has been debating the cost of regulating intoxicating products made from hemp that are sold in bars and liquor shops across the entire state.
Hemp business owners and distributors ask the government to restrict age and test requirements before releasing intoxicating products made from hemp.
The proposals always die over disagreements about how to enact the regulations—and who should enforce them.
In this legislative session, legislators are examining multiple proposals with differing views on what types of products can be sold and how much THC, a psychoactive chemical, is allowed. This THC level produces the high that consumers are looking for.
“The Governor is seeking a compromise, and rules and regulations, that will allow businesses to remain open and employees to work, and, most importantly, protect Missourians and ensure the safety of consumers,” stated Republican state Rep. Dave Hinman, of O’Fallon during an hearing on Tuesday, held by General Laws Committee, regarding a bill Hinman sponsored.
In the Missouri House of Representatives and Senate, committees approved legislation that allowed low-dose intoxicating Hemp beverages to remain sold in liquor and grocery stores. The Missouri Cannabis Trade Association, which backed both bills in support of the legislation, prohibits anything other than beverages from being sold outside state-regulated licensed marijuana dispensaries.
Hinman, on Tuesday, criticized MoCann’s bills as a potential way to put more than 2,00 small businesses out of business. He also argued that hemp products would be incorporated into the constitution marijuana monopoly.
Hinman’s bill has the support of Steven Busch from the liquor industry. The three-tier system is the one that alcohol companies have long used.
It offers guidelines for beverages, edibles, vapes and oils—such as proposing to limit edibles to only 5 mg of THC per serving and beverages to 10 mg of THC per serving.
Like the MoCann bills, this bill also bans high-THC products from being sold anywhere other than marijuana dispensaries.
Earlier this month, the committee discussed a bill sponsored by Republican state Rep. Ben Baker from Neosho. The Missouri Hemp Trade Association backed the measure. It would limit edibles to 100mg of THC. He said that people who are using the products for medicinal purposes require higher dosages.
Hinman’s and Baker’s Bills both direct that the Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control issue and regulate licenses while the Division of Cannabis Regulation supervises product testing.
The state agencies have provided an estimate of how much their department would spend to control the product for the four bills that lawmakers are currently debating.
For the hemp industry-backed bills, state agencies estimated high costs—about $20 million a year for Hinman’s bill and $95 million for Baker’s.
Both bills require that independent laboratories be regulated to ensure compliance. Research by the agencies estimated that this expense would be greater than the revenues generated from licensing and sales.
Rudy Veit (R-Wardville) said Tuesday, “I would hope that we could get it to revenue neutral because it’s a product people want and we are allowing it to be sold.” “We shouldn’t necessarily subsidise it.”
At Tuesday’s hearing, MoCann’s lobbyist Tom Robbins argued that the bills the association supports—sponsored by Republicans state Sen. Nick Schroer of Defiance and state Rep. Chad Perkins of Bowling Green—do not have the high costs that the bills backed by the hemp industry.
Robbins added, “I’m not sure that people are interested in re-inventing the wheel of regulation with products that intoxicate kids in the places they go. We have a zero dollar cost and we remove the products where the kids could enter.”
State agencies, however, did not give a complete estimate of costs for bills backed by MoCann because the agencies assumed the bill would outlaw “all” or “nearly all” hemp-based intoxicants currently available on the market.
That’s because the agencies assumed nearly all of them are made with a process that would be banned referred to as chemical conversion—or converting the cannabis compound CBD that’s abundant in hemp into THC using chemicals. Many hemp companies do not use this method, but instead are using the natural extraction methods that the MoCann bill allows.
Perkins’ bill mandates random testing and inspections for hemp-derived beverages.
According to the cost analysis of Perkins’ bill, the Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control “is not equipped” to perform such tests and will have to hire a laboratory to test samples that are collected by the Division.
This statement states that “The cost of this testing is not known but will be significant.”
A cost estimate for hiring a third-party laboratory was included in the bill sponsored by Baker—$73,908,288 per year. Hinman’s bill is much less expensive, but it’s not clear why since the requirements for testing are similar.
Hinman, along with other members of the committee, agreed that these costs should not come from the state general revenue funds.
Hinman explained that retailers should pay fees and tax to be able to offer this product. “I’m not sure where the sweet spot is but I am confident we will find it.”
First published in Missouri Independent.
A study found that using THCV and CBD, two components of marijuana every day can help people lose weight.