Why Support Gold Spectrum?: The Ever Changing Laws of the Cannabis Industry
Are you an enjoyer of safe, legal cannabis in the State of Tennessee? Do you want to help protect the sanctity of legal cannabis? Would you want to support a company that is fighting the government for these rights and regulations? If you agree with any of these questions, Gold Spectrum CBD is for you.
The legal cannabis market has exploded in the last couple of years. The market is as legal and legitimate as it ever has been. There has never been a better or safer time to consume cannabis. The negative public stigma is falling off the radar. But, with new regulations, hastily passed bills, and lack of proper communication between the State of Tennessee and cannabinoid businesses, a threat is being posed against the industry. If you want to help save the TN cannabis industry, read ahead.
In April of 2023, Senate Bill 378 was passed by the United States Federal Government. The bill reads as follows - “Consumer Protection - As enacted, regulates the production and sale of hemp-derived cannabinoids, including products known as delta-8 and delta-10.” A bill designed to further regulate legal cannabis, with a focus on the health and safety of the consumers and customers–our consumers and customers. At Gold Spectrum, the safety and security of our customers comes first. We welcomed this bill with open arms. Properly regulated and safe cannabinoid products have always been the aim of Gold Spectrum. However, this bill did not live up to its promises, leaving a messy implementation of the bill that followed, along with an illegal emergency ruling. Therefore, a lawsuit against the Tennessee Department of Agriculture was filed, with us being one of the only private cannabinoid companies to participate in this lawsuit.
For years, the industry had a lack-luster regulatory system. Without proper regulations, cannabinoid companies were able to produce poor products, and there was no agency there to check their documentation to begin with. Testing, tracking, and tracing products were all mere suggestions to these companies. If you purchased a cannabis product from a competitor company in the last 5 years, there is a chance you too fell victim to this lack of true regulation. That is why this bill held so much promise for us and companies with aligned morals. The bill was a promise to clean up the cannabis industry to ensure customer safety and satisfaction. Instead of properly following the outline of this bill, the TDA struggled to implement them at all. This was mostly due to improper time management and unclear rules to follow. This caused chaos amongst the cannabis industry, as changings rules and guidelines often result in an entire shift in how product and sales work.
At Gold Spectrum, our products are completely legal and follow all regulatory guidelines. We always update our process as needed. But, the state did not give us enough time, nor did they not put enough forethought into the actual guidelines implemented. These guidelines, which were supposed to go into effect July of 2023, included things such as the regulation of product testing labs and what packaging can look like. For example, the question of how THCa should be tested in labs was not fully fleshed out in the procedures following the bill. When THCa (a completely legal substance) is heated up, a process allows something called ‘decarboxylation’ to occur. This is when legal THCa is burned and turns into Delta 9, an illegal substance that cannot be sold in Tennessee. This becomes an issue, as, if they test products this way, it makes a substance the state deemed as legal become illegal. They then proceeded to file an emergency ruling simply because they ran out of time to sort the rules and regulations out, which could and should have been done before passing or enforcing a bill to begin with. When departments write rules and regulations, they have to follow the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act. The Department of Agriculture didn’t do that. The way they implemented a sudden emergency ruling was incredibly illegal, which is the main hitting point of our lawsuit. We can and will fight this, not only for cannabinoid law, but for our beloved customers.
Companies like ours must fight against unfair cannabis regulations and laws in order to keep cannabis safe and legal for our consumers–for you. We will not allow the state to enforce improperly researched and poorly regulated cannabis laws–not when our first priority is a safe and legal product.To support Gold Spectrum is to support this lawsuit, and to support this lawsuit is to support legal cannabis in the State of Tennessee. Stand with us today.
Sources:
Tennessee General Assembly Legislation (tn.gov)
Tennessee General Assembly Legislation (tn.gov)