Alaska rule would limit cannabinoids to licensed grows, approved hemp

Marijuana sold in Alaska's licensed stores would have to be Alaska marijuana all the way down, under a draft regulation now before the Marijuana Control Board. Every cannabinoid in the product, not just the THC, would have to come from cannabis grown at a state-licensed Alaska cultivation facility. The one exception is a hemp product the Alaska Division of Agriculture has approved.

State rules already require a license to grow marijuana for sale. What they do not say is where the cannabinoids inside a manufactured edible or concentrate have to come from, and that is the gap the Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development is trying to close.

Growers have been raising it for a while. Licensed operators told the board in September that cheap hemp-derived THC from out of state was undercutting Alaska-grown cannabis. At a Kodiak Island Borough work session in July, cannabis business owner Janice Stevens said licensed sellers are already up against "non-regulated dealers who sell to anyone anywhere."

The Division of Agriculture already refuses to endorse hemp products containing delta-9 THC, or lab-modified cannabinoids like delta-8, THC-O, THCP and HHC.

None of this is law yet. The draft has no effective date attached. Proposed marijuana rules go up on the state's online public notice system, and the Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office keeps copies.