One lawmaker said the state should protect minors without “trampling all over the freedoms” of adults.
By Adrian Ashford, South Carolina Daily Gazette
Legislation banning or nearly banning hemp products infused with THC, providing an alternative high in a state where marijuana remains illegal, advanced Wednesday to the House floor.
House Judiciary Chairman Weston Newton, the chief sponsor of both bills, said he proposed two options in recognition that a total ban may fail, leaving the intoxicating products available to children.
His more lenient proposal gives an exception for “intoxicating hemp beverages.” A business could apply for a license to sell 12-ounce cans or containers that contain up to 5 milligrams each of delta-9 THC, the compound in marijuana that gets people high. Like alcohol, sales would be limited to adults 21 and older.
The industry has flourished in a legal gray area since the 2018 federal farm bill effectively legalized hemp and very low levels of THC extracted from it. It was supposed to help farmers looking to grow hemp for non-intoxicating uses.
But it created a giant loophole: While it specified that delta-9 THC concentrations in hemp up to 0.3 percent “on a dry weight basis” were legal, neither it nor a
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