Please Help - Say NO to New Utah Hemp Regulations

Proposed Hemp Regulation Amendments will destroy Utah hemp businesses by outlawing legal cannabinoids and dried hemp, while granting unreasonable drug enforcement power to the Utah Department of Agriculture (UDAF).  

Making Cannabinoids Illegal.  Hemp contains more than 100 cannabinoids. The proposed hemp regulations will criminalize cannabinoids that are LEGAL under both Utah & Federal law, and de-criminalized by the DEA.  The proposed regulations also allow UDAF to criminalize any hemp cannabinoid by simply claiming it is “psychoactive”.  Like the 1692 Salem witch trials, no evidence is necessary:  

4-41-105. Unlawful acts.

(1) It is unlawful for a person to:  

(c) distribute, sell, or market a product that contains greater than 0.3% of either total THC or delta-8 THC under this chapter; 

(d) sell a cannabinoid identified by [Utah Dept. of Ag.] as psychoactive under this chapter;

See Proposed Bill, lines 210-219

The proposed bill criminalizes hemp cannabinoid Delta-8, asserting it is psychoactive.  However, there is no evidence hemp delta-8 is psychoactive. The DEA is required under 21 USC Part B §811  to perform “binding studies” and “functional assays” proving psychoactivity, before they criminalize a cannabinoid**. UDAF did not do this.  Utah's Ag Dept. has no expertise whatsoever identifying psychoactivity.  Psychoactivity, however, is DEA's primary expertise and on Aug 20,2020 the DEA legalized Delta 8 and all 100+ hemp derived cannabinoids.  

Does Utah’s Ag. Dept. know more than the DEA?  Days after DEA legalized Delta-8 - and all 100+ hemp derived cannabinoids, UDAF seeks to criminalize the very same cannabinoids the DEA just made legal?  Without any notice to hemp stakeholders? Why?  

How did UDAF determine hemp/delta-8 was psychoactive - and at what dose? What evidence was required to make that determination? What expertise does an Agricultural dept. have identifying psychoactivity - that’s superior to the DEA?

Answer: None. UDAF have no Evidence/Expertise.  UDAF introduced a bill to Utah legislators without presenting any evidence hemp/Delta 8 is psychoactive.  And they cannot.  The Ag. dept has no clinical studies to support psychoactivity and no expertise in evaluating psychoactivity. This quiet, backroom effort appears to be driven by Utah’s medical marijuana licensees who hope shouting "psychoactive" will require profitable hemp cannabinoids to be exclusively sold by them, through their marijuana pharmacies. MJ pharmacies choose what’s sold in their shops and have refused to sell any product made by hemp businesses. This legislation is essentially a license to take profitable hemp markets away from hemp operations - and gift them to Utah Marijuana companies.

Bad Legislation Kills Utah Business.  Hemp is known as a flexible agricultural commodity because it can be processed into multiple different end products.  100+ cannabinoids. Product flexibility is necessary to stay in business. CBD priced at $4,500/kg 18mo ago is currently priced at $400.  If hemp businesses were only allowed to sell the cannabinoid CBD, they would be out of business today.  Hemp businesses require product flexibility and the right to process all 100+ hemp cannabinoids granted under Utah laws they relied on when they started their businesses.  

Utah Businesses Followed the Law.  Relying on the law**, Utah hemp businesses invested millions of dollars in hemp cultivation, processing and retail production.  Utah law that allows use of all 100+ hemp cannabinoids. The proposed hemp amendments abruptly reverse current law.  

Proposed amendments pull the rug from Utah hemp. If enacted, the safe harbor laws Utah businesses relied on to invest millions - are gone. The flexibility to diversify products & remain profitable - is eliminated.  Hemp businesses will go from limited risk to 100% risk if UDAF is allowed to arbitrarily deem any cannabinoid illegal, without supporting evidence.

Criminalizing Smokable Hemp.  The proposed bill also criminalizes smokable hemp (See Bill, line 225).  This rule denies farmers the ability to sell dried hemp plant material (below .3% D9 thc).  This rule forces farmers to sell hemp for $20/lb that can be sold for $1500/lb as dried hemp flower.  For Utah farmers, that's the difference between a profitable operation - and bankruptcy . Utah farmers need access to their largest market - dried hemp flower to remain profitable.  

Please ask Utah Legislators to say NO to proposed Hemp Regulation Amendments, and ask legislators to pass legislation that helps Utah hemp businesses - including:

1.  Require independent 3rd party "binding studies" and "functional assays" in the form required by DEA pursuant to 21 USC Part B §811 before classifying any hemp derived cannabinoid psychoactive or illegal; 

2.  Remove hemp from the Utah Controlled substance Act, by adopting the language used by the DEA Interim Final Rule Aug 20, 2020 which decriminalized hemp and hemp derived cannabinoids;

3.  Legalize retail sale of up to 2oz of dried hemp plant material (tested below .3% delta 9 thc by weight).

We need your support to make this happen.  Please sign this petition and ask others to do the same.  Together our voices can make a difference.

Thank you for supporting hemp farmers and businesses!

Footnotes:

**1. Interestingly, courts have decided this very issue:  “The DEA has no authority to regulate drugs that are not scheduled, and it has not followed procedures required to schedule a substance.” In Hemp Industries v. DEA, 357 F. 3d 1018 - CA 9th Cir 2004.  We reasonably request Utah follow the same procedures the DEA must follow to criminalize cannabinoids, including independent, third party "binding studies" and "functional assays".

**2.  The Agriculture Improvement Act was signed into law in 2018 (“AIA”; “Farm Bill”). The AIA federally legalized all 100+ hemp “...derivatives, extracts and cannabinoids”. Utah followed suit legalizing hemp under Utah Code 4-41.  On Aug. 20, 2020, the DEA decriminalized all 100+ hemp “... derivatives, extracts and cannabinoids”.