Rhode Island Bills To Restrict Hemp THC Drinks Ignore Science And Current Regulations (Op-Ed)

*“Products that meet intoxicating thresholds should be sold in
dispensaries, and products that do not should be available through licensed
CBD consumable retailers.”*

*By Mike Simpson, Lovewell Farms via Rhode Island Current*

As co-founder of Rhode Island’s only U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
organic hemp farm, and the largest outdoor cannabis farm in the state, I’ve
spent the last eight years helping build the hemp industry from the ground
up.

At Lovewell Farms, we’ve operated under one of the strictest regulatory
frameworks in the country, subject to licensing, batch testing,
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) limits, secure packaging requirements and
product traceability. Yet two recently proposed bills, H6056 and H6270,
would cut licensed hemp farms like ours out of the very market we helped
establish.

These bills, introduced by Democratic Reps. Jacquelyn Baginski of Cranston
and Scott Slater of Providence, aim to regulate the sale of hemp-derived
beverages containing delta-9 THC, the compound most commonly associated
with cannabis intoxication.

Slater’s bill would specifically eliminate the sale of such beverages and
drink mix powders in Rhode Island, unless these products are specifically
included in the state’s cannabis laws. The bills misrepresent both the
science behind these products and the legal infrastructure already in place.

During a recent House hearing, Rep. Baginski stated, “I was surprised to
learn that hemp-based THC products are also available in the marketplace
and largely sold unregulated…at any establishment with a retail sales
permit. That could be a convenience store, a hair salon, a gas station,
anywhere.”

Respectfully, this is inaccurate. In Rhode Island, consumable hemp products
must be produced by licensed handlers and tested by certified labs. They
are subject to strict limits on THC content, comprehensive labeling
standards, and age restrictions. If some products are being sold outside
these rules, that’s a failure of enforcement, not evidence of an
unregulated system.

Rep. Slater’s testimony in support of his bill, which would effectively ban
all hemp-derived THC beverages unless sold through a dispensary, also
included misleading claims. He asserted that “the hemp-derived THC products
are now being sold outside the regulated cannabis system with minimal
oversight, including limited testing, weak labeling, no seed-to-sale
tracking as well as avoidance of cannabis taxes.”

This characterization erases the work of licensed hemp producers who follow
every requirement the state imposes, many of whom, like us, already
distribute specific products through dispensaries and operate with full
compliance under existing cannabis laws.

Slater went on to say that allowing hemp beverages undermines Rhode
Island’s cannabis cultivators, whom he described as his constituents. “I
really find it unfair that as soon as this market has started that we’re
trying to undermine them…and allowing folks that found kind of a loophole
with this synthetically altered hemp in drinks…without going through the
same framework that everyone else has.”

But our farm has always followed the framework. There is no loophole for
us, just increasing restrictions on products we’ve made legally, safely and
transparently for years.

Both bills ignore a crucial scientific fact: Not all hemp products are
intoxicating.

Our full-spectrum gummies and vape cartridges, for example, often contain a
CBD-to-THC ratio of 25:1 or higher. Peer-reviewed research shows that
products with a 15:1 ratio or greater are effectively non-intoxicating, as
the CBD counteracts the effects of THC. These products are designed for
stress, sleep and inflammation support, not intoxication. Lumping them
together with high-potency THC beverages from out of state is
scientifically inaccurate and economically harmful.

What’s also troubling is that these bills would hand control of hemp
beverage sales to either liquor stores or cannabis dispensaries, while
excluding the very farms that have driven the state’s hemp market since
2018.

Rep. Baginski says she wants to “create a new safe marketplace for hemp THC
beverages,” but the safest and most transparent path is the one we already
have: Products that meet intoxicating thresholds should be sold in
dispensaries, and products that do not should be available through licensed
CBD consumable retailers. That distinction already exists under current
state law.

Rhode Island can and should regulate cannabinoids based on potency, ratios
and public health risk. But it must do so with accuracy and fairness. Hemp
farmers have invested many years and many dollars into building compliant,
small-scale businesses rooted in sustainable agriculture and community
health. We are not the problem, we are part of the solution.

My hope is that lawmakers will revisit these proposals and work with, not
around, the people who have spent years getting it right. Hemp regulation
should be based on science and equity, not stigma or disinformation.

*Mike Simpson is the co-founder of Lovewell Farms, Rhode Island’s only U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic hemp farm. He is also a historian,
educator and longtime advocate for policy reform. He was previously deputy
director for Regulate Rhode Island and an initiative coordinator for
Marijuana Policy Project in Maine. He now lives in Providence and farms in
the village of Hope Valley in Hopkinton.*

*This story was first published by Rhode Island Current.*

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*Photo courtesy of Brendan Cleak.*

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