A new bill could make it easier for the federal government to regulate legal hemp products and keep them out of the hands of Americans under the age of 21.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced the new piece of legislation, called the “Cannabinoid Safety and Regulation Act,” on Wednesday.
The bill would make it illegal to market and sell products containing intoxicating cannabinoids like THC to minors and U.S. adults under the age of 21.
The bill also calls for the Food and Drug Administration and the Alcohol Tax Tobacco and Trade Bureau to create rules for testing and labeling legal hemp-derived products for adults.
“Cannabis prohibition has never kept cannabis out of the hands of kids,” the bill reads. “Robust regulation can give consumers a safe, reliable option while deterring unregulated markets and disallowing unsafe products.”
Congress legalized hemp or cannabis with less than 0.3 percent delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — the compound primarily responsible for the psychoactive effects of the plant — in the 2018 Farm Bill.
But the bill did not include a regulatory framework for the plant product making it free from testing or packaging requirements.
As a result, kids are easily able to access hemp-derived products with THC in things like CBD gummies and vapes.
Concerns over minors accessing intoxicating THC products prompted California to issue an emergency ban on hemp products with any amount of THC earlier this week. The move comes less than three weeks after a temporary ban on the products was issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom.