Michigan regulators on Friday, April 15, axed a plan to allow hemp to be synthetically converted to THC, the high-inducing compound in marijuana.
Allowing hemp plants to be converted into oils that produce almost the exact same effects could put those existing producers out of business.
“After receiving a significant amount of public comment regarding safety concerns and the lack of scientific and public health data related to the conversion process outlined in the proposed industrial hemp rules … the Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA) has withdrawn this request for rulemaking,” the agency announced Friday.
The decision comes two days after the licensing body was renamed from the Marijuana Regulatory Agency and assumed authority over hemp-derived products. Currently, licensed businesses are permitted to extract THC oil from marijuana.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order in February that called for renaming the MRA and assigning it authority over hemp processing for commercial sale. MDARD retains oversight of hemp farming.
Hemp and marijuana are the same plant: cannabis. Except the government defines hemp as cannabis with less than 0.3% THC, the psychoactive compound produced in marijuana at much higher levels. Hemp had been regulated by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), and marijuana by Marijuana Regulatory Agency.
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On October 21, 2021, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) received federal approval of the revised Michigan Hemp Production Plan dated October 18, 2021.
The plan contains regulatory requirements for cultivating industrial hemp and maintains MDARD as having primary oversight of industrial hemp production in Michigan. This latest U.S. Department of Agriculture approval was required to ensure Michigan’s plan complies with the USDA’s final rule.
Michigan’s first approved state plan went into effect December 1, 2020 and aligned with USDA’s Interim Final Rule requirements.
The USDA issued its Final Rule on January 15, 2021 after review of 5,900 comments which went into effect March 22, 2021, Within that short window, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed Senate Bill 0816, sponsored by Senator Dan Lauwers (R-Brockway Township), which updated Michigan’s Industrial Hemp Growers Act (Public Act 220 of 2020) to ensure the state’s cultivation law agreed with updated requirements in USDA’s final hemp rule.
Because Michigan was able to quickly update Public Act 220 and implement it this year, hemp growers will not see a change to requirements they’ve become familiar with this season. This latest USDA approval simply brings the state plan up to date with the Final Rule and Public Act 220.
MDARD expects to regularly revisit the Industrial Hemp Growers Act as the state’s program evolves. The industry develops, and federal policies are modified. Any changes to the state hemp program require USDA approval, so MDARD expects this review and approval process to happen on a recurring basis. All state and tribe plans can be viewed on USDA’s website.
DISCLAIMER This post may contain re-posted content, opinions, comments, ads, third party posts, outdated information, posts from disgruntled persons, posts from those with agendas and general internet BS. Therefore…Before you believe anything on the internet regarding anything – do your research on Official Government and State Sites, Call the Michigan State Police, Check the State Attorney General Website and Consult an Attorney – Use Your Brain.
The Postal Service revises its regulations in Publication 52, Hazardous, Restricted, and Perishable Mail, to incorporate new statutory restrictions on the mailing of electronic nicotine delivery systems. Like cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, such items are generally nonmailable.
This rule is effective October 21, 2021.
The U.S. Postal Service released its final rule regarding the mailing of vapes, asserting that even if the devices are made for federally legal hemp products like CBD largely cannot be shipped via the U.S. mail.
The U.S. Postal Service has been progressing and preparing the regulations to obey the House and Senate who passed a bill last year that included a provision to restrict how electronic cigarettes can be sold online and shipped which will most likely affect marijuana too. There are certain exceptions in the regulation, but many investors are disappointed.
The USPS justified in the rule, that by the letter of the law, that includes hemp and marijuana vapes. “It goes without saying that marijuana, hemp, and their derivatives are substances,” the agency said. “Hence, to the extent that they may be delivered to an inhaling user through an aerosolized solution, they and the related delivery systems, parts, components, liquids, and accessories clearly fall within the POSECCA (Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act ) scope.”
Others argue that the USPS should not levy the restriction on cannabis because the ban might conflict with state marijuana laws or because Congress has supported legislation that prohibits the use of Justice Department funds for interfering in medical cannabis programs where it is legal.
The USPS stated
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1) it’s part of the federal government and is, therefore, unaffected by state or local marijuana policies and
2) it’s not part of the Justice Department, which is the only branch of the government restricted by the state protection rider in appropriations legislation.
The agency further clarified that hemp containing up to 0.3 percent THC is federally legal and is generally mailable, but only “to the extent that they are not incorporated into an ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery systems) product or function as a component of one.” As such, while business can generally mail out legal hemp-derived products, that’s only the case if they are not vaping products covered under the new law.
“The POSECCA (Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act) and the Agriculture Improvement Act overlap, but they do not conflict. The Agriculture Improvement Act merely excludes certain products from the CSA. It does not affirmatively declare hemp and hemp derivatives to be mailable in any and all circumstances, superseding all other relevant laws (such as the POSECCA). For its part, the POSECCA restricts the mailability of only certain hemp-based and related products; hemp-based non-ENDS products are unaffected, as are ENDS products falling within one of the PACT Act’s exceptions. That Congress has rendered some subset of a class of goods to be nonmailable while leaving the remainder mailable is not some sort of legal conflict, but, rather, how mailability regulation typically works.”
There are limited exceptions to the new mailing rule. Vapes can be shipped within the states of Alaska and Hawaii; verified businesses can mail vapes between each other or to government agencies; companies can send products for consumer testing or public health purposes; and individuals can ship up to 10 ENDS for non-commercial use per 30-day period. Beyond that, it is generally prohibited for a company to send a vaping device to a consumer via U.S. mail.
Some argued that CBD products could fall under the health exemption to the general ban, but USPS said that would not apply unless and until the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves any such products.
“The FDA likewise has not approved any ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery systems) product for therapeutic delivery of any non-nicotine substance.”
The 2018 Farm Bill includes new guidelines for growing hemp. It moves hemp under the Title 1 commodity program. Early this year, USDA issued a Notice to Trade, stating they are in the process of gathering information to initiate rule making necessary to implement this program.
The USDA’s goal is to issue regulations in fall 2019 to accommodate the 2020 planting season, the agency said in a recent release.
“During the 2019 planting season, the 2018 Farm Bill directs that states, tribes and institutions of higher education may continue operating under authorities of the 2014 Farm Bill until 12 months after USDA establishes the plan and regulations required under the 2018 Farm Bill,” they said in the release.
