Connecticut’s hemp farmers and CBD product producers say a bill intended to curb sales of illegal cannabis edibles would significantly affect their business.
“This will cripple my business,” said Duncan Markovich, co-founder of Better Ways CBD, a Branford-based cannabis therapeutics brand. “The state of Connecticut has really continued to squeeze small business owners to the point where I am now feeling that this will shut me down.”
The legislation, passed Tuesday in the state House, would reclassify some products derived from hemp as “high-THC hemp products.” It is intended, lawmakers said, to stop sales of synthetic cannabis edibles sold statewide in many CBD shops among other locations. The bill still needs to pass through the Senate and signed by Gov. Ned Lamont to become law.
“They’re actually legal right now. We’re actually closing that loophole and yes it’s going to take product off the shelves of some of these CBD stores,” state Rep. Mike D’Agostino, D-Hamden, said Tuesday. “I would hope their marketplace will adjust, just as our marketplace has adjusted, and that they will package within the limits that we allow, those THC-infused CBD products and continue to sell their CBD products.”
A federal farm bill passed in 2018 legalized the cultivation and sale of cannabis plants that contain less than 0.3 percent THC. Connecticut, along with many other states,…
