The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets has recently published draft rules for the Vermont Hemp Program, which provides for the regulation of hemp and hemp products that are grown, cultivated, processed, or produced in Vermont. The rules follow changes to federal law through the 2018 Farm Bill, which went into effect January 1, 2019 and changed the classification of hemp from a Schedule 1 drug to an allowable agricultural product. Hemp plants, which are distinguished from marijuana plants, are defined under the new federal law as the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant (including cannabinoids) with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis. The 2018 Farm Bill allows for states to have primary regulatory authority (over the federal government) for hemp production, providing that they submit a plan for monitoring and regulating the production of hemp crops and products that meets certain guidelines and received approval from the Secretary of Agriculture.
As proposed, the Vermont Hemp Rules would apply to a broad array of hemp-related activities and businesses, including farmers who are growing or transporting hemp plants and processors that dry, handle or convert hemp crops into hemp products or aggregate hemp from multiple sources. Manufacturers of hemp or hemp-infused products (including CBD products) are considered processors under the rules.
Among the proposed requirements for growers are to register with the state (including registering all of the areas where hemp plants will be grown, stored, dried or processed), maintain seed/plant purchase and sale records, test hemp crops for compliance with the acceptable potency level and contaminant standards, and file annual compliance reports. Hemp processors would also be required to register with the state and to process hemp only at registered sites. Other requirements for processors would include submitting a disposal plan to the state if they plan to extract THC or THC-A from crops, maintaining various harvest lot and formulation records, and ensuring products meet the potency and contaminant standards. Processors would also be prohibited from using synthetic cannabinoids in hemp products under the rules. Product sellers that are not also growers or processors would not be required to register with the Hemp Program to sell hemp or hemp-infused products in Vermont.
There are a few key take-aways in the proposed rules for producers of CBD and other hemp products with respect to required labeling information. For consumable products, in addition to stating that products contain hemp and THC (if applicable), product labeling would also need to include the name and address of the manufacturer, an ingredient list of the contents (and a statement of the quantity of the content), manufacturing and expiration dates, a process lot number, and the “guaranteed amount” of any cannabinoids to within +/- 10% per serving size and traceable to a certificate of analysis. For all products, the rules propose a grading system based on the CBD concentration level in the hemp crop used in the product, which ranges from Grades AA-C and “biomass.” The rules would also define certain terms that products would need to comply with before the terms could be used on product labels or marketing. These include the following:
- Whole plant
- Isolate
- Distillate
- Full-Spectrum
- Broad-Spectrum
In addition, the rules propose to limit to the use of the phrase “Produced in Vermont” to products that are manufactured in their entirety within the state and to the standards established in the rules. The labeling requirements and the grading scale will serve to create a baseline standard for the “Vermont Hemp” brand and to provide consumers with established standards of quality and sourcing for hemp products. The proposed rules specify that these labeling and grading requirements wouldn’t go into effect until July 1, 2020, whereas other portions of the rules would go into effect upon adoption, presumably to give manufacturers a chance to update their labeling to be compliant with the requirements.
A full copy of the draft rules is available here. This draft has been submitted to the Interagency Committee on Administrative Rules (ICAR), and is on the tentative agenda set for today, May 13, 2019. After that, the rulemaking process includes posting the draft rules on the Secretary of State’s website, which begins the notice and public comment period. The final proposed rule then would then go through Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (LCAR) review.
