Alaska's legal cannabis growers say tax-free synthetic THC is sinking them

Alaska's licensed cannabis growers say they are being undercut into failure by a product that skips the rules they have to follow.

The product is synthetic THC: hemp-derived CBD converted into Delta-9, the compound that gets you high. Because it starts as hemp, sellers skip the state cannabis excise tax, which the industry says is the highest in the nation, and much of it is just ordered through the mail. Tasha Grossl of Lady Gray testified that licensed Alaska cannabis oil costs 10 to 15 times more than the untaxed Delta-9 juice arriving by post. The state industry association's president, Trevor Haynes, calls it an unchecked flood of converted hemp.

It is also a safety question. Licensees have testified that some of these CBD oils are manufactured in China, and that the conversion creates compounds not found in nature that labs are not even testing for. As one grower put it, the unregulated product is "not what voters voted for."

The frustrating part for the industry is that the board agrees with them on the law. Chair Bailey Stuart has said on the record that converting CBD to THC is not permitted, and member Lacy Wilcox called the ban very clear. Yet beyond an administrative hold on one lab, growers say enforcement has not followed.

The next chance to press the issue is the Marijuana Control Board's June 24-25 meeting in Fairbanks. There is no vote scheduled. The cultivator discussion sits near the end of the agenda, listed only as time permitting, and public comment is capped at 3 minutes a person.