WSWA Emphasizes States’ Regulatory Rights As Congress Debates Hemp THC Issue
June 11, 2024Last week, the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) submitted a letter to the U.S. House and Senate Agriculture committees, urging Congress to allow states to regulate and restrict intoxicating hemp products as they see fit, rather than attempting to prohibit them. WSWA’s position is that Congress needs to enact legislation that gives states the power to regulate and control the hemp-derived THC markets within their borders, similar to the level of control states have for beverage alcohol.
Dawson Hobbs, WSWA’s executive vice president of government affairs, tells SNDC that the federal government needs to offer more guidance for states, with the current landscape creating confusion. In some cases, he says, individual states have faced lawsuits arguing that the broad hemp legalization in the 2018 Farm Bill preempts states’ rights to restrict hemp-derived THC products. “The states need support and they need it to be explicitly clear that they have the authority to regulate these products,” he says.
WSWA’s proposal, according to Hobbs, has been relatively well received by members of Congress. He says that there is widespread agreement that the 2018 Farm Bill needs to be clarified and, while support for WSWA’s proposal isn’t universal, it’s a step forward. Emulating alcohol regulations, WSWA argues, would give states the power they need to create safe hemp-derived THC markets.
Hobbs calls WSWA’s proposals a “common sense regulatory approach” modeled on a system that’s already in place and working. “Our members have been looking at the cannabis marketplace and saying, here’s an intoxicating product that has been legalized now in 20-some states, and we have an intoxicating product and we have a regulatory structure that’s worked great for the last 90 years,” says Hobbs. “We need to resolve this conflict between state and federal law, and we need the federal government to create a regulatory framework that protects public safety and protects our communities and gives states broad authority to regulate the product.”
“Since the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, intoxicating hemp products have evolved into an unregulated, multi-billion-dollar industry,” WSWA says in its letter to Congress, noting that derivative products like delta-8 and delta-10 THC are beyond the intended scope of the Farm Bill and that the lack of regulations has made intoxicating products accessible without any age restrictions.
But the group believes outlawing the products outright now that they’re already widespread in the market would be a mistake. WSWA president and CEO Francis Creighton added, “Now is the time for federal regulation—not prohibition. Lawmakers need not look too far back in history to learn from the beverage alcohol marketplace and know, without a doubt, that prohibition isn’t the answer.”—Shane English
