‘Battle royale’: Cannabis regulation bills pit regulatory agency against some marijuana businesses

An effort by state regulators to rein in sale of intoxicating cannabis that can be produced with materials outside their authority has some major business interests crying foul.

The Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board has requested a change in the law that would explicitly permit it to prohibit the sale of intoxicating materials derived from hemp. The request comes on the heels of rulemaking started in earnest by the board last year after it was discovered that some of the state’s retailers were selling products including “delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC),” an intoxicant chemically similar to delta-9 THC found in adult marijuana plants, that had been produced from hemp, which was made federally legal following passage of the 2018 farm bill.