Tag: CannaBeat

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CannaBeat: State Sued for Rule Change on Smokeables

CBD and Delta-8 products on a shelf at Cumberland Cannabis (Photo: John Partipilo)

Tennessee’s hemp industry is making a last-ditch legal effort to halt sweeping new rules that would ban the sale of popular hemp products legally available in the state since 2019.

Attorneys representing Tennessee hemp retailers and producer associations are expected in a Nashville court Monday just ahead of new state product testing rules scheduled to take effect Dec. 26.

The rules would bar the manufacture, distribution and sale of many of the best-selling hemp products that have helped drive a nascent state industry to generate $280-$560 million in sales annually, based on survey data cited in legal documents.

The hemp products haven’t been outlawed by the Tennessee legislature or the federal government.

TN Agriculture officials want to curb CBD and THCA smokables, offer cryptic response to questions

Rather, new legislation designed to impose first-time regulations on Tennessee’s five-year-old hemp industry –—such as license requirements, taxes, and age restrictions — have been interpreted by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture in a way that would render certain hemp products illegal.

The rules require products to be tested for the first time for so-called TCHA content, a naturally occurring and still-legal substance found in all hemp plants. When hemp flowers are heated or smoked, the substance converts to THC — an illegal substance in Tennessee when it is present in greater than trace amounts.

The Tennessee Growers Association and the Tennessee Healthy Alternatives Association are seeking a temporary injunction they say is necessary to prevent widespread devastation to the burgeoning industry.

Should the new rules go into effect, “a large share of Tennessee’s hemp-derived cannabinoid market will be rendered illegal overnight, shuttering many businesses and forcing downsizing and layoffs at others,” legal filings by the Tennessee Healthy Alternatives Association read.

Hemp is a cannabis plant that has been legally available in Tennessee since the Legislature first approved its production, possession, and sale in 2019.

It’s distinguished from marijuana by its concentration of a compound known as delta-9 THC. Cannabis with a concentration of less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC is defined as legal hemp in Tennessee — and federally. Cannabis with concentrations greater than .3 percent is classified as marijuana and is illegal to grow, sell, or possess in Tennessee.

Stockard on the Stump: Senator predicts Delta variant will spur vaccinations

Hemp flowers also contain THCA, a nonintoxicating acid that has not been outlawed in Tennessee. When heated or smoked, however, the THCA in the plant converts into delta-9 THC.

The state product testing rules unveiled by Tennessee’s agriculture department earlier this year will now make THCA products illegal based on their combined concentration of delta-9 THC and THCA, rather than solely their delta-9 THC concentration.

A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, which rejected hemp industry administrative appeals of the rules, declined to comment Tuesday on pending legislation.

Both industry groups argue the state’s agriculture department exceeded its authority in formulating the rules, essentially outlawing a product the legislature has determined to be legal.

“Here, it blinks reality to conclude that the General Assembly — in the very statute that expressly defines (THCA) as a legal hemp-derived cannabinoid without any concentration limits — delegated to the Department a clandestine power to outlaw (THCA) products that have been legally sold in Tennessee for years,” legal filings said.

The Tennessee Growers Association has also put forth a separate legal argument that the 2023 law intended to regulate “hemp-derived products” does apply to the unadulterated hemp plant itself.

“Hemp and raw flowers are not HDC’s (hemp derivative products),” the Tennessee Growers Coalition argued. “After all, hemp cannot be ‘derived’ from itself.”

The groups are seeking an immediate preliminary injunction in Davidson County Chancery Court to prevent the rules from taking effect.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.

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Hemp Flower Set to Disappear from Stores Next Month

Esteban López on Unsplash

Hemp flower is still set to disappear from store shelves on December 26th after state lawmakers left a new rule in place this week, one that cannabis industry leaders say could decimate their businesses.

Cannabis farmers and retailers already adhere to a state law that limits products to a maximum of .3 percent THC. The new rule, set not by lawmakers but the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDOA), includes new testing for THCA levels, which can rise in products on store shelves or after purchase by being heated. 

The new rule would stop the sale of smokeable hemp flower, those recognizable green nuggets that can be crushed, rolled in a joint, or lit in the bowl of a bong. Pushback on the sale of hemp flowers comes largely from GOP members of the Tennessee General Assembly. Their objection being, basically, that smoking dry flower can get users high from legal products.

 On his way to Wednesday’s joint House and Senate hearing on the TDOA’s new cannabis rules, Soddy Daisy cannabis farmer and Farm to Med retail owner Chris Sumrell, said he passed two groups of people smoking cannabis. Public consumption is a problem, he said, even noting that if “someone that looked like me [with long hair and a beard]” was smoking cannabis next to his family in a park, he’d move away from them. But lawmakers should not take the product away form retailers.

“What do people do with the flower? They smoke it,” Sumrell testified. “We can’t stop them from doing that. If we take this off the counter, and don’t regulate it, and tax it, they’re gonna go to the black market or take their business across state lines.” 

Sumrell’s testimony on his cannabis use was one of the clearest public delineations between smokeable products and edibles given to state lawmakers in years of debate. The new rules would test products at or after the moment of decarboxylation. This process, usually done with heat, converts THCA into THC, releases psychoactive compounds, and gets users high. 

Here’s how Sumrell described the nitty-gritty: 

”Anybody that uses cannabis will tell you that eating cannabis and smoking cannabis are two completely different things. I don’t eat it at all. I don’t like it because that’s the Delta 9. That’s the psychoactive narcotic. The walls can melt if you take on too much of that stuff, okay? 

“But smoking it, it’s a different property altogether. That’s combustion, not decarboxylation. 

“So, that’s where the wall is very confusing because say we’re talking about decarboxylation to somebody that’s a scientist. They’re gonna say, ‘well, they’re talking about cooking with it.’ No, they’re talking about using this to take the [hemp flower] off of the table. Well, that’s combusting it. That’s a different chemical process. This is science. 

“THCA flower does not turn into a psychoactive narcotic until you cook with it through decarboxylation. Decarboxylation’s prime temperature is 200 to 250 degrees, but starts at 98 degrees. So, just leaving that flower in the window can turn it to Delta 9. But if I’m striking a lighter to it, that’s combusting it into a [non-psychoactive] CBN and not a Delta 9.”

House Speaker Rep. William Lamberth (R-Portland) sponsored the overarching cannabis regulation bill two years ago. He worked closely with farmers, retailers, and government officials in drafting the bill. The bill put cannabis products behind many store shelves, and issued labeling requirements and THC limits. It also gave control of the state’s cannabis program to the TDOA, which added the rule that would ban THCA flower. 

On Wednesday, Lamberth pushed to keep the department’s rule in place for now so businesses could still operate. But he said he anticipated legislation on the matter in next year’s legislative session, which, perhaps, left the door open to smokeable products in the future. 

Jeff Sullivan, a former Memphian, and now vice president of sales with Chattanooga-based Snapdragon Hemp, pushed the debate from science, intoxication, and governance to straight economics. 

“Chris [Sumrell] will lose his farm,” Sullivan said. “Chris will lose his retail industry along with many, many other companies in Tennessee if their particular rules stay in place. It eliminates that much of their total business, their bottom line.”

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CannaBeat: Buds & Brews Sets Open Date for Broad Location

Credit: Buds & Brews

Buds & Brews, Tennessee’s first cannabis bar and restaurant concept, will open in Memphis next month. 

The restaurant was created and is owned by Nashville-based Craft Cannabis, a Tennessee seed-to-shelf cannabis company. The company’s new Memphis location is slated to open on Friday, Dec. 13th, in the former Bounty on Broad space in the Broad Avenue Arts District. 

“We are excited to bring the Buds & Brews experience to this dynamic arts community,” said Michael Solomon, owner and president of Craft Cannabis. “Along with a curated list of craft cocktails and beers on tap, we’re excited to offer our very own brand of THC-infused beverages and New Highs cannabis cocktails. 

“We’ve partnered with a brewery in Chattanooga to create these top-shelf quality cannabis beverages and have collaborated with some of the very best in the food and beverage industry in Memphis to bring a truly unique culinary adventure to this community.”

Credit: Buds & Brews
Credit: Buds & Brews

The first Buds & Brews opened in Nashville in 2022. It offers patrons the opportunity to “enjoy cannabis in a safe, legal, and fun environment” with upscale bar food like burgers, wings, and “Wake & Bake Brunch.” Diners can choose their favorite condiment sauces infused with Tennessee grown and extracted hemp-derived THC. The menu also features dessert edibles. 

For more information, click here. 

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Study: Tennessee Ranks Near the Top for Cannabis Arrests

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
The Last Prisoner Project

Tennessee is near the top for arresting people for cannabis and near the bottom for cannabis justice. 

Those are the conclusions from Denver-based The Last Prisoner Project (LPP). The group is “dedicated to releasing every last cannabis prisoner and helping them rebuild their lives.” It works on drug policy and criminal justice reform to “redress the harms of the federal government’s so-called ‘War on Drugs.’”

The group said 14,426 people were arrested for cannabis in Tennessee in 2022, using the latest available data. The figure gives the state an arrest rate of .2 percent per the population. Cannabis arrests comprised 39 percent of all drug arrests in the state that year. 

The Last Prisoner Project

This puts Tennessee near the top in two of these rankings. Only Texas arrested more people for cannabis that year (24,941). (But given that state’s huge population, the arrests rate was only .08 percent of its population.) Only Wisconsin had a higher arrest rate for cannabis (.22 percent). In Louisiana, 60 percent — more than half — of all drug arrests were for cannabis.   

But LPP admits that any real figure to determine exactly how many people are locked up on cannabis charges will be “an educated guess” at best. 

The Last Prisoner Project

“Unfortunately, thanks to our complex and oftentimes impenetrable hodgepodge of local, state, and federal criminal justice databases nobody — not even the federal government — is privy to that exact number,” reads a blog post from the group. 

However, the group’s figures (and Tennessee’s cannabis arrest rates) aren’t plucked form the air. LPP relied on two separate Bureau of Justice Statistics reports reviewing incarcerated populations by drug-specific offenses. That is, the report counted all those behind bars for drugs and what drugs brought them there. 

But the figure has to be low. Those reports don’t count those in local and county jails, juvenile detention facilities, and those held for pre-trial and pre-sentencing. Also, some facilities just don’t report to the feds like they should. 

“Nearly 40 percent of law enforcement agencies around the country did not submit any data in 2021 to a newly revised FBI crime statistics collection program,” according to a study from The Marshall Project. Neither New York City nor Los Angeles reported to the FBI that year, for example. 

The Last Prisoner Project

But the LPP can measure how well states help those previously incarcerated to find justice in the wake of either cannabis legalization or service of their time. 

Don’t worry. Tennessee does terrible there, too. Its June report gave Tennessee a D- after earning 3 points. (California earned 25 points for scale.) 

The Last Prisoner Project

“With no full legalization, no pardon policy, no avenues for resentencing, and extremely limited avenues for record clearance, Tennessee falls behind and offers virtually no relief for individuals impacted by past cannabis prohibition,” reads the report.     

The Last Prisoner Project

The LPP gave Tennessee two points for a law passed in 2022 that allowed for some criminal records to be expunged. However, it wasn’t written specifically for cannabis and the LPP said, “this unfortunately means that cannabis offense are not expedited nor guaranteed.” 

The state’s other point in the report came as the law does include broad eligibility for different levels of offenses. Tennessee scored points only in two of the report’s 16 categories. 

Don’t worry. Mississippi and Arkansas scored a D-, too. However, both states got an extra point over Tennessee for having some sort of legalization and/or decriminalization process. Tennessee has neither. 

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CannaBeat: Cannabis Group Follows Through on Promise to Sue State

Credit: Budding on Unsplash

As promised, the Tennessee Growers Coalition (TGC), the state’s advocate for the cannabis industry, sued the state over new rules it says are “void” and threaten the industry. 

State lawmakers passed new laws last year to regulate the burgeoning cannabis industry in Tennessee. Among many other things, the new law made the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) responsible for regulating the cannabis industry in the state. Late last year, the department issued a draft of new rules for cannabis producers and products. 

The department updated those rules in July after a public comment period. However, TGC said state officials did not include ideas from the nearly 19,000 public comments in the new rules.

Instead of blending those ideas into a set of final rules, the TGC said agriculture officials issued emergency rules. The timing and procedure of issuing these new rules form the basis of the cannabis industry’s lawsuit filed Friday. The process, TGC said, “imposed an immediate and irreparable threat of harm” to the businesses of its members.

“TGC members’ businesses and livelihoods are at stake by being forced to adapt their business practices to regulations, change the type of products they sell, and how they manage compliance while paying a license fee under regulations that are void as a matter of law,” reads a statement from the group. “The (TDA) has nothing to lose while TGC Members risk losing everything.”

The new rules still include new THC standards for THCA and CBD flowers. New limits could see those products removed completely. The new rules would also allow police to arrest manufacturers, retailers, and consumers for selling or possessing these smokable products, according to Cultivate Tennessee, another hemp advocacy group.

The new state rules redefine THC to include a product’s total THC. This includes a lot of THCA — the cannabinoid that produces a “high” — smokeable products.

“They’re trying to redefine it by combining two different cannabinoids,” TGC executive director Kelley Mathis Hess told us last month, “two different things, when it should just be Delta 9, and Delta 9 only. They’re trying to put a limit on [THCA] but the limit would, basically, ban a lot of it.” 

Hess said these products are probably the most popular products on the market right now. Many small businesses have built their business around sales of these products, she said. Removing them could prove fatal to them. 

TGC promised to fight the rules in court last month. A court date for the lawsuit has been set for next Thursday, September 19th. 

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CannaBeat: “Legal High” Products Still at Risk in Tennessee

Photo: Budding | Unsplash

Smokeable THCA and CBD products are wildly popular in Tennessee, according to industry advocates, but they remain at risk of disappearing from store shelves under new state rules. 

State lawmakers passed new laws last year to regulate the growing cannabis industry in Tennessee. For example, cannabis products were moved behind shelves of stores that aren’t 21 and up. A new 6-percent tax on cannabis products was levied, too. A single serving of a cannabis product cannot exceed a dosage of 25 milligrams in the state.

The new law also made the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) responsible for regulating the cannabis industry here. Late last year, the department issued new rules for cannabis producers and products. 

The department updated those rules at the beginning of this month after a public comment period. Tennessee Growers Coalition (TGC) executive director Kelley Mathis Hess said nearly 19,000 comments were submitted to the agency. But officials must not have listened, she said.

The new rules still include new THC standards for THCA and CBD flower. New limits could see those products removed completely. The new rules would also allow police to arrest manufacturers, retailers, and consumers for selling or possessing these smokable products, according to Cultivate Tennessee, another hemp advocacy group.

The new state rules redefine THC to include a product’s total THC. This includes a lot of THCA — the cannabinoid that produces a “high” — smokeable products.

“They’re trying to redefine it by combining two different cannabinoids,” Hess said, “two different things when it should just be Delta 9, and Delta 9 only. They’re trying to put a limit on [THCA] but the limit would, basically, ban a lot of it.” 

Hess said these products are probably the most popular products on the market right now. Many small businesses have built their business around sales of these products, she said. Removing them could prove fatal to them. 

TGC and Cultivate Tennessee have promised to fight. 

“We will fight to keep smokable hemp products, such as THCA flower, concentrates, and vapes legal in Tennessee,” Cultivate Tennessee says on its website. “We will defend against the TDA attempting to rewrite laws through the rules. We assert that the TDA rules are potentially illegal and unconstitutional.”

The new rules, though, are considered “emergency rules,” meaning they are not the final rules. So, they’re not set in stone. Hess said she hopes agency officials will reconsider the new rules for cannabis flower. If they don’t, TGC will file a lawsuit for legal clarification, she said.

These particular products were likely targeted by the agency, Hess said, for one big open secret.

 “These products get you high,” she said. “That’s not a secret anymore. That’s the whole reason [Rep. William Lamberth (R-Portland)] and [Sen. Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville)] brought a bill, because it gets you high and they wanted it regulated.”  

The new rules won’t affect edible products, like gummies, Hess said. Those products are made with cannabis oils that can be measured, fine-tuned all along the production process, and remain stable on the shelf. Cannabinoid profiles in flower products, however, can change. 

No state official has made any public comment on the new rules. However, when the Biden administration announced new rules not approved by Congress in a different matter, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti led a multi-state revolt against them (and temporarily won). The U.S. Department of Education added “gender identity” to Title IX. Skrmetti said only Congress could change rules and that the government agency “has no authority to let boys into girls’ locker rooms.”  

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CannaBeat: Cannabis Restaurant Headed for Broad Avenue

Credit: Buds & Brews

Tennessee’s first brick-and-mortar cannabis bar is slated to land in Memphis soon.

The former Bounty on Broad space will soon become a Buds & Brews location. No timeline for the opening was given in a news release.

Nashville-based Buds & Brews opened its first restaurant and bar in that city’s Germantown neighborhood in 2022. It will open a second location in East Nashville later this month. 

The restaurant allows patrons to “enjoy cannabis in a safe, legal and fun environment,” the company said in a statement. It offers a unique menu of upscale bar fare like the Buds Burger, hot chicken tacos and a Wake and Bake Brunch.  

Credit: Buds & Brews

“We are excited to bring the Buds & Brews experience to Memphis,” said Michael Solomon, owner and president of Craft Cannabis, the restaurant’s parent company. “This dynamic arts community is the perfect location for a new and innovative restaurant and bar concept.  

“We are proud to collaborate with some of the best in the food and beverage industry in order to bring Tennesseans a truly unique culinary adventure.”

Craft Cannabis is an umbrella group for three brands. Craft Cannabis offers seed-to-shelf cannabis flower grown in Nashville. That brand also offers an array of edibles like cannabis cookies, gummies, and suckers. Tri-Star Medical offers cannabis tinctures, capsules, and topicals. Sticky Tomato has a full line of gummies. 

At Buds & Brews, diners can choose their favorite condiment sauces infused with Tennessee-grown-and-extracted hemp-derived THC. The restaurant will also have a craft cocktail menu, cannabis-infused cocktails like the Smoky Margarita and Spliff Sangria, beers on tap, their own brand of THC-infused beers and New Highs seltzers, and dessert edibles.  

Bar Leafy Green was slated to become Memphis’ first cannabis restaurant. Owners announced the plan on social media in 2022. It is unclear, however, whether the restaurant ever opened.

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CannaBeat: Feds Move On Cannabis; Could Loosen Laws in Tennessee

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The White House will remove cannabis from the federal list of the country’s most dangerous drugs, according to the Associated Press, a move that could lead to looser laws in Tennessee.

In 2022, President Joe Biden promised to reevaluate cannabis’ placement on Schedule I. Schedule I is the federal government’s classification for some of the worst drugs, such as meth and heroin. These drugs are highly addictive and have no medical use, according to the government.

Biden promised cannabis reform in a statement in October 2022. It outlined three steps his adminstration would take to end what he called the government’s “failed approach” on cannabis so far. 

Back then, Biden pardoned all federal offenses of simple possession and urged governors to do the same. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee did not make any cannabis pardons.

Biden said the next step to reclassify cannabis was to check with the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Attorney General to “expeditiously” review how cannabis is scheduled under federal law. 

Those conversations went on, apparently, behind the scenes, even out of Congressional view. Last summer Congressman Steve Cohen and Congressman Matt Gaetz grilled Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram for details during a meeting of the House Judiciary Crime and Federal Government Surveillance Subcommittee. They got very few. 

Milgram said her agency couldn’t move on the matter without word from HHS. She said DEA had not heard anything and had not even heard of a timeline for when HHS might send word. 

On Tuesday, The AP reported that DEA will move to reclassify cannabis, citing five anonymous sources. That proposal must then get the approval of the White House Office of Management and Budget and go through a public comment period. If approved, cannabis would be listed on Schedule II, alongside drugs such as ketamine. 

Tennessee lawmakers have long said they wouldn’t approve any looser laws for cannabis unless the drug was moved from Schedule I at the federal level. Despite the creation of the Tennessee Cannabis Commission years ago, a group tasked with establishing a cannabis program for Tennessee, no material changes have been made in state laws.  

State Rep. Jesse Chism (D-Memphis) said he hopes that with the reclassification ”we can start the ball rolling soon and begin having serious discussions here in Tennessee.”

“Our state has spent millions and millions of taxpayer dollars to enforce cannabis laws that are outdated and harmful to a lot of people, including many Tennesseans who are trying to get relief from painful chronic medical issues,” Chism said in a statement. “In addition to wasting those dollars, we’ve completely ignored the financial benefits that could be coming the state’s way. 

“I’ve filed several pieces of legislation ranging from allowing medical use to decriminalization to even trying to put a non-binding referendum on the ballot to hear from Tennessee’s voters. The main point of contention has always been its federal classification.  Hopefully, with this movement we can start the ball rolling soon and begin having serious discussions here in Tennessee.”

Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus Chairwoman Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) applauded the move, saying it will will have benefits for Tennesseans seeking medicinal cannabis.

“Reclassifying marijuana as a less-dangerous drug at the federal level is a historic decision, driven by common sense,” Lamar said in a statement. “Republican lawmakers have kept Tennessee in the dark ages on marijuana policy — wasting our tax dollars locking people up for a plant. While my ultimate goal is still legalization in Tennessee, this is incredible news for folks who would benefit right now from natural medical cannabis to treat chronic pain or illness.”

Cohen, a longtime advocate for cannabis reform, was frustrated by delays in the process during that Congressional hearing last year. “I’ve been here 17 years … and I’ve seen DEA heads, I’ve seen [Federal Bureau of Investigation] directors, I’ve seen attorney[s] general, exactly where you’re sitting, say governmental gibberish about marijuana. They’ve done nothing for 17 years, and for years before that. It goes back to the [1930s]. 

“The government has messed this up forever and you need to get ahead of the railroad. You’re going to get something from HHS. Biden understands [cannabis] should be reclassified. He said from [Schedule I to Schedule III] and it should be classified from [Schedule I] to 420. We ought to just clean it up and get over with it.” 

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Cannabis Flower Products At Risk With New TN Rules

Photo by Budding on Unsplash

Cannabis flower products could disappear from store shelves in Tennessee next year thanks to new state rules, a threat to businesses and consumers, advocates say. 

State lawmakers passed new laws this year to regulate the growing cannabis industry in Tennessee. Some of those rules went into effect in July. For example, cannabis products are moved behind shelves of stores that aren’t 21 and up. A new, 6-percent tax on cannabis products was levied, too. 

The new law also made the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) responsible for regulating the cannabis industry here. On Monday, the department issued new rules for cannabis producers and products. 

They immediately drew the ire from the Tennessee Growers Coalition (TGC), the advocacy and lobby agency for the state’s cannabis industry. The group is now organizing its members to fight the new rules.

TGC’s executive director Kelley Hess said the new law focused only on the Delta 9 cannabinoid and said that’s how hemp is defined on the federal level. But state agriculture officials added new THC standards for THCA and CBD flower. This could pinch producers and retailers as these products are “at least 70 percent of the market right now” and “what people have been building their businesses around.”

The new rules won’t affect edible products, like gummies, she said. Those products are made with cannabis oils that can be measured, fine-tuned all along the production process, and remain stable on the shelf. Cannabinoid profiles in flower products, however, can change. 

“The organic, raw flower is what’s really at jeopardy,” Hess said. “[The TDA is] just calculating the cannabinoids differently than what we’ve been calculating them for the last five years.” 

The TDA has overseen the state’s hemp industry since 2015. However, that oversight began as an industrial hemp program, when the crop was most likely intended to make rope, concrete, and those hippy hemp pullovers. 

That changed with the federal Farm Bill and the discovery of cannabinoids that could be pulled from hemp. The word “industrial” was all but phased out and TDA teams now travel the state testing hemp plants to ensure the THC levels in them are below a federally mandated .3 percent. 

In the past, that’s where the department left it. Whatever happened to that legal hemp and its cannabinoids afterward was up to the farmer and the market. The new law now mandates TDA  to manage cannabis and an edible foods program (like gummies) from the plant all the way to the shelf. The new rules issued Monday basically outline the structure of that program. 

Hess said her group and producers across the state offered ideas for state officials for the program but they did not listen. The new THC standard, she said, is a “misinterpretation of the bill” and warned agirculture officials that “you cannot do that.” But “they still did not take that seriously.” 

Hemp growers already have to meet those strict state guidelines in the field, she said. The move cut the number of producers from around 4,000 in the state to around 400. Hess said the TDA is now trying to “copy/paste” similar rules to the product side.

“It’s another standard that these growers and producers have to meet, which is completely unrealistic and unattainable,” Hess said. “So, they can’t do it. Then, all of these products that are on the shelf now will become illegal and noncompliant. So, law enforcement can come with criminal charges. 

A public hearing on the matter is scheduled for February. That hearing comes during the next session of the Tennessee General Assembly. 

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CannaBeat: UTHSC Researchers Study Link Between Genetics and THC Effects

Principal investigators Dr. Bob Moore (left) and Dr. Megan Mulligan (right) have been awarded a $3.69 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for their study on identifying the genetic differences that influence responses to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Credit: University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Cannabis hits everyone a little differently, doesn’t it? A shared bowl of the same bud can produce varying effects in those sitting on the same couch. Why?   

That (and a whole lot more) is exactly what researchers at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) want to find out. Now armed with a $3.7 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, they’ll begin to unravel how genetic differences in animals change how tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — the major psychoactive component in cannabis — affects them differently. 

 The study, the first of its kind, is led by Bob Moore, PhD, a professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Megan Mulligan, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Genetics, Genomics, and Informatics. Drs. Xusheng Wang, Byron Jones, and Rob Williams are assisting in the research. UTHSC provides facilities, resources, and administrative staff, and the school invested pilot-project funding.

The team wants the research to ultimately help those consuming cannabis. Do gene variants put some at risk for unwanted side effects? Can the research be used to create new cannabis-based therapies?

We caught up with Mulligan to help us better understand the project. — Toby Sells

Memphis Flyer: Can you briefly (and plainly) explain what this research project is about? 

Megan Mulligan: The goal of our research project is to identify gene variants that contribute to individual differences in the physiological response to high-dose THC. These gene variants could make individuals more or less sensitive to therapeutic or harmful effects of THC. 

To do the research, we will measure THC response in a genetically diverse population of rodents. In response to THC, both humans and rodents experience a drop in body temperature (hypothermia), reduced activity (hypolocomotion), and are less sensitive to pain or annoying stimuli (antinociception). 

Just like humans, some rodents in this population are more or less sensitive to THC. For example, some rodents may show only a slight reduction in activity when given THC, while others might not move at all. 

We can score the response of each individual in the genetic population and then identify which regions of the genome contain genetic changes that are shared by individuals with similar responses to THC. This will be the first study to identify gene variants that cause differences in response to THC. This type of study has not been done before in humans or rodents.

How did you get the idea to do this project?

Changes in regulatory policy and public attitudes towards cannabis have resulted in increased cannabis use. Recreational use is now legal in 23 states. 

At the same time the levels of THC in cannabis and derived products have tripled. On average, 3 percent in dried cannabis in the 1980s [is] up to 15 percent today and even up to 30 percent for some strains. Extracts and edibles can contain as much as 50 percent and up to 90 percent THC.

We have a very poor understanding of how individual genetic variation impacts health benefits of THC or the risk of adverse health consequences following use of high-potency products that contain large amounts of THC. 

This project was inspired by the urgent need to better understand the range of individual variation in THC response and to identify gene variants and biological signaling pathways that mediate differential sensitivity to THC.

What do you hope to find out?

Although some of the targets of THC in the body are known, we have yet to characterize all of the genes and signaling pathways impacted by THC. 

Moreover, cannabis-derived products like THC and the biological signaling pathways that respond to them are now being explored as therapeutics or therapeutic targets to treat neurodegenerative diseases, pain, metabolic disorders, drug dependence, and anxiety, to name just a few. 

At the same time, THC, especially in high doses, can have adverse health consequences. These include acute impairments in perception, memory, and motor skills, and cognitive impairments, psychosis, use disorders, withdrawal symptoms, and hyperemesis syndrome in some individuals following chronic use. 

The goal of our study is to identify the gene variants and biological signaling pathways that make individuals respond differently to THC. This information could then be used to identify individuals who might be at risk for side effects or negative health consequences of THC use or to identify signaling pathways that could be therapeutically targeted to treat pain or disease.

 How will the results change the cannabis industry, or products, or cannabis policy? What could change with your results?

Consumers need accurate information about the composition of products and potential health risks. Our study does not directly address these issues. 

It is our opinion that learning more about the targets of THC in the body and the contributions of genetic variation to THC response are part of a broader research effort to better inform the public about the risks of high-potency THC use and will ultimately contribute to changes in policy and the development of cannabis-derived therapeutic products.