Years after Congress passed a milestone Farm Bill, an alliance of marijuana and health advocates are raising the alarm about how a loophole has permitted sales of intoxicating hemp products that appear on shelves with few regulations.
The federal legislation in 2018 legalized hemp, which is cannabis with less than 0.3 percent of THC, the main psychoactive compound in marijuana. But the sweeping bill that Congress may replace or extend by the end of 2025 did nothing to keep hemp-derived products from having higher potencies, such as hundreds or thousands of milligrams of THC.
Hemp-derived drinks, edibles and “THCA flower” have popped up in Maine via smoke shops, convenience stores and online orders outside of the state-regulated medical and adult-use market. Over the past year, members have increasingly noticed intoxicating hemp options with unclear combinations of ingredients and originate from out of state.
The fight between the hemp industry, which prefers the existing federal rules, and an alliance of cannabis and public health groups concerned about intoxicating, unregulated products is reaching Maine and other states. Lawmakers in neighboring Massachusetts and other states are looking at new regulations around the intoxicating hemp-derived products.
Maine lawmakers are not moving as swiftly yet, though they are looking at ensuring buyers of intoxicating hemp products are at least 21 years old while otherwise debating testing rules and how to handle the proliferation of illicit marijuana grow houses linked to China.
“It’s really a whack-a-mole problem,” said former state Rep. Patty Hymanson, D-York, a neurologist who served on a work group last year that formed out of failed legislation to regulate intoxicating hemp and that recommended a 21-year-old age limit for buyers while not reaching consensus on other policy ideas.
Joel Pepin, owner of JAR Cannabis Co., which has several retail stores in the state, said fellow shop owners have removed the intoxicating products manufactured out of state and that they failed tests for Maine’s acceptable levels of mold, heavy metals and other chemicals.
Industry members provided photos of a “THC Nerdz Cluster” for sale at a Farmington smoke shop containing 275 milligrams per cluster. Illustrating the potency of those intoxicating products, Pepin said he advises new customers to start only with a 2.5 mg to 5 mg dose.
The Office of Cannabis Policy under Gov. Janet Mills said the continued absence of clear federal policy on intoxicating hemp-derived products, or IHDPs, has left states “increasingly inundated with IHDPs that are unregulated, untested, untracked and easily accessible by minors,” spokesperson Alexis Soucy said, adding the office wants new regulations.
“While the proliferation of these unregulated, intoxicating products is first and foremost a matter of public health and safety, it also poses a threat to Maine’s regulated cannabis market,” Soucy said.
Intoxicating hemp products are “a major concern for public health and safety,” Matt Wellington, associate director of the Maine Public Health Association, said Friday.
“Young people are easily getting their hands on them, and sometimes people don’t even know the drink they’re buying at the convenience store isn’t a harmless seltzer but actually an intoxicating beverage, because they’re being sold alongside non-intoxicating products,” Wellington said.
State agencies in Massachusetts issued guidance in 2024 saying the intoxicating hemp-derived products are illegal, but enforcement that is left to local health boards has reportedly remained uneven. Lawmakers in Maine’s neighboring state are considering new regulations this year while also not wanting to hinder non-intoxicating hemp products, such as CBD oils or creams.
Sean, who works for the Mystique of Maine cannabis business and preferred not to use his last name for fear of retaliation from government officials, said the state must decide how to best regulate THC and the products containing it. He described suppliers of intoxicating hemp beverages and THCA flowers coming into his stores to try to get Mystique to sell them.
But Rep. David Boyer, R-Poland, an ally of medical growers who helped lead Maine’s marijuana legalization efforts and sits on the committee overseeing the industry, nodded to the state-level regulatory challenges by noting the proliferation of internet sales.
“How do you enforce that at the state level?” Boyer wondered.
