Minnesota’s cannabis regulators say they are developing an interagency plan to crack down on hemp retailers who are exploiting a legal loophole to pass off marijuana buds as industrial hemp.
The state’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) said it suspects that some hemp shops and smoke shops have been selling raw cannabis flower that might exceed the state’s limit of 0.3% delta-9 THC – essentially making it marijuana.
The OCM said it is exploring the possibility that inspectors from the Office of Medical Cannabis and the Department of Agriculture can assist in policing sales of the illicit products.
The hemp bud sellers have jumped ahead of the opening of Minnesota’s recreational marijuana market scheduled for next year under House File 100 (HF 100). That law started the process of legalization by decriminalizing possession and the growing small amounts beginning Aug. 1, 2023. But retail sales are still blocked until cannabis management officials at the OCM draft rules and issue licenses.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is responsible for regulating the cultivation and production of industrial hemp, including rules enforcement, licensing and inspection.
Currently, hemp-derived CBD and other cannabinoid products are regulated by the Minnesota Department of Health under a registration program. While authority for those products is to be transferred to the OCM on March 1, 2025, current rules do not make clear that OCM has – or will have – any sway over raw hemp flowers.
OCM said it has not acted against such sales or even tested the questionable hemp flower products because jurisdiction over raw cannabis buds rests with the Office of Medical Cannabis, a separate agency established to set up the legal medical marijuana market in 2015.
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