Op-Ed: House Lawmakers Seek to Prohibit Cannabis Concentrates From the Adult-Use Market

Vermont Growers Association calls on lawmakers to regulate all cannabis concentrates for market viability, public health, and safety. 

MONTPELIER — On Thursday, May 5, 2022, the Vermont House Committee on Government Operations voted to amend bill H.548, a Miscellaneous Cannabis Establishment Procedures Bill, with language prohibiting solid cannabis concentrates that test over 60% THC from the adult-use cannabis marketplace. This House amendment will place Vermont’s entire adult-use marketplace in jeopardy, introduce significant and unprecedented risk, and, in turn, impact countless local businesses and consumers, the state’s projected revenue, and keep cannabis products unregulated. No other state with an active adult-use cannabis market has THC caps. Vermont Growers Association, the largest member-based cannabis nonprofit in the state, calls on lawmakers in the Conference Committee to pass the Senate version of bill H.548, which includes language that removes the THC caps on solid concentrates, and to reject the House Committee on Government Operations amendment.

Should the House’s amendment become law, hundreds of the local businesses trying to transition into the regulated market will see their products prohibited, and consumers will be driven away from Vermont’s regulated market.

Cannabis concentrates, such as bubble hash and rosin, and concentrate-derived products, such as edibles and topicals, typically account for 50% of a state’s entire adult-use market; they are popular products with consumers. Vermont’s adult-use cannabis market is projected to gross over $200 million annually. The House’s amendment to bill H.548 will endanger over $100 million of Vermont’s upcoming cannabis market, severely impact product selection, viability and competitiveness, and the participation rate of local unregulated businesses seeking licensure. Should the House’s amendment become law, hundreds of the local businesses trying to transition into the regulated market will see their products prohibited, and consumers will be driven away from Vermont’s regulated market as thousands of cannabis concentrates and concentrate-derived products will stay in the unregulated market, as well be widely available as regulated products in neighboring states.

The Cannabis Control Board’s November 1, 2021, report to the General Assembly recommends reforming the THC caps currently in law by allowing the Board to regulate solid concentrates that test over 60% THC in the interest of public health.

It is in the state and public interest to test and regulate cannabis products rather than keep them illicit and unregulated. The House Committee on Government Operations amendment to bill H.548 is at odds with the recommendations of the Cannabis Control Board, a majority in the Senate, and the will of the Vermont cannabis community of farms, small businesses, and consumers across the state who wish to see all cannabis concentrates regulated by the state. The Cannabis Control Board’s November 1, 2021, report to the General Assembly recommends reforming the THC caps currently in law by allowing the Board to regulate solid concentrates that test over 60% THC in the interest of public health. Vermont lawmakers entrusted the Cannabis Control Board to develop rules, administer, and oversee adult-use cannabis when it passed Act 164 in October 2020, including allowing the agency to regulate cannabis and cannabis products, lawmakers should allow it to do so now.

When Vermont enacted Act 164 in October of 2020…it became the only state to include THC caps in an adult-use cannabis marketplace, limiting solid cannabis concentrates to 60% THC and cannabis flower to 30% THC.

When Vermont enacted Act 164 in October of 2020, allowing the state to tax and regulate cannabis, it became the only state to include THC caps in an adult-use cannabis marketplace, limiting solid cannabis concentrates to 60% THC and cannabis flower to 30% THC. Vermont is still the only state with THC caps with an active adult-use market – Connecticut just passed them, but its market did not open yet. Contrary to the misleading testimony offered by prohibitionists in the House Committee on Government Operations, there is no national trend to prohibit high-THC products in the 18 states with adult-use cannabis markets, Vermont and Connecticut are the only exceptions. Vermont’s neighboring states and likely competitors for legal cannabis, such as New York and Massachusetts, will offer more desirable regulated cannabis products that Vermont will be prohibited from offering if the House version of bill H.548 gets enacted.

Cannabis concentrates that test above 60% THC is currently widely produced, sold, and consumed in Vermont, behavior that won’t change anytime soon, and Vermont’s regulated market should reflect that reality.

The legislative process for bill H.548 also reflects its outcome. When the Senate chamber deliberated bill H.548, it sought a fairly inclusive process by inviting into Committee a variety of local stakeholders, from local cannabis growers to advocacy groups, resulting in language that allows the Cannabis Control Board to regulate all cannabis concentrates. By contrast, when the House Committee on Government Operations recently deliberated the THC caps bill H.548, it invited prohibitionists who opposed the idea of cannabis regulation and offered to the Committee inaccurate testimony with misleading statistics and data about cannabis and cannabis concentrates.

Cannabis concentrates that test above 60% THC is currently widely produced, sold, and consumed in Vermont, behavior that won’t change anytime soon, and Vermont’s regulated market should reflect that reality. The House’s changes to bill H.548 to prohibit solid cannabis concentrates that test over 60% THC will not contribute to improving public health and safety in Vermont, instead, it will cripple the state’s adult-use market, ensure producers, consumers, and revenue stay in the unregulated market or out-of-state. There is broad support among businesses and consumers across Vermont to remove the THC caps. Vermont Growers Association has petitions to reform the THC caps with over 550 Vermonters’ names and over 140 Vermont businesses to date. Vermonters want lawmakers to pass the Senate version of bill H.548, which includes language that removes the THC caps on solid concentrates.

See the full press release.

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About Vermont Growers Association: As a non-partisan, mutual-benefit, nonprofit trade association, the mission of the Vermont Growers Association is to ensure Vermont has an equitable, viable, craft-centric, small business-driven adult-use cannabis marketplace through education, marketing, and advocacy. We see Vermont as a premier state for locally produced, world-class quality cannabis and related products.