Massachusetts
‘Frankenstein-like chemical product’: Spread of hemp concoctions worries lawmakers
BOSTON ― The products have been appearing on the shelves of convenience stores, in gas station mini-marts and bodegas. Even liquor stores and restaurants seem to be selling hemp-infused seltzers, energy drinks, tinctures, chocolate bars, gummies and sugary treats masquerading as brand-name candies.
The often-intoxicating concoctions are smokable, vape-able, drinkable and edible: however they are not sold legally in Massachusetts.
Two legislative committees, the joint committees on agriculture and cannabis policy, met Tuesday, summoning public health officials, state agricultural experts and members of the Cannabis Control Commission to discuss the proliferation of the hemp products. They discussed changes in federal law that triggered the growth in the products, the lack of manufacturing and marketing oversight and what the state could do to address the risks they pose.
“It’s a Frankenstein-like chemical product,” said Kimberly Roy, a commissioner on the Cannabis Control Commission.
More: After state puts brakes on Hemp beverage sales, market is left in ‘state of uncertainty’
The experts were clear: it’s up to the Legislature to act. They suggested Massachusetts establish a state-funded and -run standards laboratory for testing suspect products, survey the state to determine which local departments of health need additional resources and shoring up, and set clear state standards for hemp products. They said businesses also need to be educated that the products are illegal in Massachusetts.
What’s at issue?
- While hemp and marijuana are derived from the same plant, and products infused with hemp derivatives can be intoxicating, not all CBD- or hemp-infused products are intoxicating.
- With manufacturing oversight lacking, products can be contaminated by unknown substances.
- Solvents used to extract cannabinoids from hemp can be toxic.
- Ingredient labels do not always match the substances in the products.
- They are marketed and sold to all ages, including young children.
- Only those growers, manufacturers, distributers and retailers who are licensed and regulated by the state can sell intoxicating cannabis products legally.
The proliferation of the products can be traced to the 2018 federal Farm Bill that removed hemp from the schedule of illegal substances, allowing its cultivation for industrial purposes, according to Cheryl Sbarra, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards. The plant is grown for its fiber and used to make rope, textiles and paper.
In removing the plant from the schedule of drugs, the federal government did limit the amount of THC, also called Delta 9, in a plant. Those containing less than 0.3% Delta 9 at harvest are considered hemp; plants with greater concentrations of the chemical compound are called marijuana.
In Massachusetts, the state Department of Agricultural Resources oversees the cultivation and harvest of hemp. The plant is tested for Delta 9 concentrations only at harvest. The Cannabis Control Commission oversees the cannabis industry.
Cannabis is tested for potency, for diverse contaminants from pesticide residues to heavy metals and molds. The state oversees the cultivation, harvest, manufacturing, product packaging, distribution and sales.
In contrast, manufacturers of hemp products, many working out of state, have no oversight at all.
Distillers can derive many different cannabinoids from marijuana, including Delta 8 and Delta 10. These can also be synthesized in a laboratory. That process uses solvents that can pose a health risk.
In analyzing hemp-infused substances, the CCC has found between 15 and 30 contaminants in products that analysts do not recognize.
“We don’t have names for them; we see the contaminants in the products, but we don’t know what they are; don’t know if they ever existed before,” Roy told the legislators.
Roy said she has heard from cannabis retailers who have invested at least $1 million in obtaining a state license and their dismay at seeing hemp-infused products, with Delta 8 and Delta 10 compounds, for sale online and at gas stations.
“There’s no testing, no advertising restrictions, no labeling and no tax benefit to the state,” Roy said.
Masquerading as candy
“There are new products being sold all the time,” said Maureen Buzby, tobacco control coordinator for the Melrose Board of Health.
Public health officials also complained of the lack of resources and overriding authority to address the proliferation of hemp products.
Licensed retailers, those selling tobacco or alcohol products, can be warned that they could lose their licenses if they don’t remove the products from their shelves. Places that sell prepared foods also require licenses.
But health officials’ hands are tied when it comes to stores selling self-stable food items.
“We’re talking Twinkies and Coke,” Sbarra said. “They don’t need a permit to sell those items in Massachusetts.”
State Department of Public Health Secretary Dr. Robert Goldstein suggested the Legislature work in coordination with the Cannabis Control Commission, the Department of Agricultural Resources and his own department to resolve jurisdictional issues.
Data indicate that ingested cannabis products can have different effects than smoked products, and can affect children differently than adults, Goldstein said. There have been instances of overdoses and a need for hospitalization of children younger than 10 for breathing support.
“They look like candy,” Goldstein said, and added, “what kid doesn’t want to grab a pack off the shelf at the Home Depot and put it in the cart?”
A man has died following an apparent drowning at a pond in Randolph, Massachusetts, on Sunday.
The Randolph police and fire departments received a 911 call at around 4 p.m. for a swimmer in distress in the water on Pond Street, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office..
Firefighters located the man a short time later, officials added, and he was taken by ambulance to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The Kingston Fire Department had said just before 4 p.m. that their dive team was activated for a missing swimmer in Randolph, but that the activation was canceled after the swimmer was located.
Further information is not being released at this time, including the man’s name.
Massachusetts State Police detectives and the Randolph Police Department are investigating.
Firefighters in Lawrence, Massachusetts are working to contain a fire that damaged at least three buildings on Sunday afternoon.
Lawrence Fire Chief Patrick Delaney said they received multiple 911 calls about the buildings on fire at the intersection of Haverhill and Margin Street at about 12:45 p.m.
When firefighters arrived, there were three occupied multi-family buildings with heavy fire.
“Crews did an excellent job once they arrived on scene to make sure we did a primary search of all three buildings, make sure everybody was out,” Chief Delaney said.
No injuries have been reported. It is unclear how many people have been displaced from the three buildings that were on fire.
Chief Delaney said the firefighters were impacted by the hot weather.
“The crews are working extremely hard, they’re taking a lot of heat in all three fire buildings and we’re trying to get crews in here to make sure that they’re safe and give them some relief,” Chief Delaney said.
Investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire. Firefighters from other nearby communities responded for mutual aid.
“We’re at a fourth alarm which brings a lot of resources to our city, but they’re well needed in a fire like this,” Chief Delaney said.
Police are asking residents to avoid the area of Haverhill Street at Margin Street because of the fire.
Lawrence, Massachusetts is a city about 30 miles north of Boston.
When a government whistleblower risks a career to expose corruption to a journalist, the first question is always the same: Will my name be kept out of it?
The same is true when a hospital employee reveals a cover-up, when a church insider exposes abuse, or when a corporate source provides evidence that a company has concealed the dangers of its products.
In 41 states and the District of Columbia, a journalist can answer that question with the weight of law behind the promise. In Massachusetts, a journalist cannot.
That is unacceptable for a commonwealth that calls itself the cradle of American liberty and a birthplace of the free press.
And it is also dangerous, especially now, at a moment when journalists face escalating hostility, when federal officials openly threaten and demean the press, and when the legal protections that make independent journalism possible are under assault from multiple directions.
Two bills pending on Beacon Hill would remedy that. House Bill 4638 and Senate Bill 1253, both titled “An Act Relative to the Free Flow of Information,” would establish a statutory reporter’s privilege in Massachusetts, protecting journalists from being compelled to disclose confidential sources or unpublished information except in narrowly defined circumstances involving national security, imminent violence or a defendant’s constitutional right to a fair trial.
Last fall, both the House and Senate members of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary gave these bills a favorable report — marking the first time a shield law bill has ever cleared committee in Massachusetts. Since then, however, the bills have languished. Now, their fate is down to the wire.
The clock is ticking. The formal legislative session ends July 31. If both chambers do not bring these bills to a floor vote by then, the legislation dies, and the entire effort has to start over in the next session.
We urge House Speaker Ronald Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka, and the leadership of both chambers to ensure that a shield law goes to a vote before time runs out.
The need is more urgent than ever. Just last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in the case of Catherine Herridge, a veteran investigative reporter facing daily fines of $800 for refusing to reveal a confidential source. Herridge’s case arose in federal court, where no shield law applies.
But Massachusetts journalists face a similar vulnerability in state court, where judges apply a discretionary balancing test that has produced inconsistent and unjust outcomes. In the Ayash v. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute case, a reporter and his newspaper were held in contempt for refusing to identify a confidential source — even though the underlying claims were ultimately dismissed.
In Commonwealth v. Karen Read, the trial court reversed its own ruling on a reporter’s claim of privilege, underscoring the current standard’s unpredictability.
This legal uncertainty has real-world consequences.
Sources with information the public should know — about government misconduct, about institutional abuse, about threats to public health and safety — are reluctant to come forward.
Reporters at small and local newspapers, the very outlets that cover city halls and school committees and police departments, face the prospect of costly court battles they cannot afford every time a subpoena lands on an editor’s desk.
A statutory shield law would replace that uncertainty with clearly defined protections, replacing individual judges’ unguided discretion with an unambiguous legal standard on which everyone could rely. The commonwealth’s outlier status grows more conspicuous each year.
In March 2025, Idaho became the latest state to enact a shield law, with its Republican-led legislature approving the law unanimously. There is no reason for Massachusetts not to follow suit.
This legislation carries no fiscal cost. It has no formal opposition. It has the support of every major news and press organization in the state, as well as of the ACLU of Massachusetts and Common Cause. What it needs now is a vote. The people of Massachusetts deserve the same protections for a free and vigorous press that citizens in the vast majority of states already enjoy. The Legislature has just weeks to act. It should not let this historic opportunity slip away.
Robert J. Ambrogi is the executive director of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association.
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