The Alaska marijuana industry’s frustration and anger with intoxicating hemp-derived THC edibles has boiled over several times over the past year, making for tense meetings with state regulators as businesses pleaded for help with the largely unregulated competition.
The industry finally got some relief last week when the state announced updated regulations for the Alaska Industrial Hemp Program that will explicitly prohibit the sale of any hemp products containing intoxicating delta-9 THC or other non-naturally occurring cannabinoids.
Under a loophole in the federal Farm Bill, hemp products are allowed to contain trace amounts of THC. If we’re talking about hemp flower, that wouldn’t come anywhere close to the concentrations you’d see in commercial marijuana, and you’d be left smoking a lot of rope before you got anything close to a high.
The problem, however, is that the rules also apply to finished products, which means a manufacturer can run low-THC hemp through a concentration process, put that concentrated THC into a cookie or gummy and still pass the rules for trace amounts of THC. The end result is products that are effectively similar to traditional edibles (though ask pot connoisseurs, and they’ll say that the high pales in comparison to traditional THC).
What we’ve seen is these hemp-derived edibles pop up in gas stations and head shops without the same kind of regulation that the marijuana industry faces, meaning there’s not the same tax structure, regulations and—perhaps most critically—no age limit.
The situation had businesses in Alaska’s legalized market wondering whether there was a point in sticking around. The tax structure and the regulatory process have both been sources of major headaches for the industry, and improvements have been slow to come.
“As a manufacturer of edibles, I cannot compete with Delta-8 and Delta-9 products from hemp,” said Brandon Emmett, co-owner of Good Titrations in Fairbanks, at an Alaska Marijuana Control Board hearing earlier this year. “What is my economic incentive to continue to participate in the AMCO program for the edible market? I can understand vape pens or high-THC marijuana, but for this specific but significant sector of the industry, why should I go through the hassle? I’ve crunched the numbers … and we could order Delta-8 or Delta-9 products in finished packages from the Lower 48 for the same price or cheaper than I can produce them myself as a semi-vertically integrated facility.”
At that meeting, state officials expressed frustration over the situation but warned a fix wouldn’t necessarily be easy.
The federal Farm Bill, however, made finding a workable solution more tricky, and it took the state regulators nearly a year to implement a change as part of an overall update for its industrial hemp program. Part of the challenge was also keeping up with the ever-changing ways to make THC concentrates. That’s addressed in the regulations with blanket language prohibiting any product that contains delta-9 THC or “a non-naturally occurring cannabinoid, including a cannabinoid made from an ingredient extracted from industrial hemp and modified beyond its original form.”
“These revised industrial hemp rules increase safety for Alaskan children and protections for the regulated cannabis industry in our state,” said DNR Commissioner John Boyle in a prepared statement accompanying the announcement. “The Industrial Hemp Program was never intended to allow intoxicating products, which are rightfully regulated for the recreational market in Alaska by the Alcohol & Marijuana Control Office.”
Other changes in the regulations reflect the Alaska Industrial Hemp Program’s move from a pilot program to a permanent one. It also includes a streamlined process for application and registration of new businesses.
The regulations are set to go into effect in early November.
Legislators have also discussed the possibility of law changes to address intoxicating hemp products, along with the ongoing discussion about tax changes.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Bluesky.
