CBD oil containing THC must be removed from Indiana stores in 60 days, Gov. Holcomb says

By Tony Cook and Kaitlin L. Lange
Source: indystar.com

Gov. Eric Holcomb is directing state excise police to resume checking stores for cannabidiol, or CBD, products after Attorney General Curtis Hill issued an opinion declaring them illegal in Indiana.

Stores will have 60 days to either sell or pull products from their shelves. 

In a statement, Holcomb said excise police will "perform normal, periodic regulatory spot checks of CBD oil products."

Those checks will focus on CBD products that contain any THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, regardless of the amount. Most of the CBD products being sold in Indiana contain less than .3 percent THC, meaning they can't produce a "high." 

"Because CBD oil has been sold in Indiana for several years," Holcomb said, "the excise police will use the next 60 days to educate, inform and issue warnings to retailers so there is a reasonable period of time for them to remove products that contain THC."

He said that timeline will provide state lawmakers an opportunity to review existing CBD oil laws, including labeling requirements, before product confiscations begin.

Nathan Renschler, the owner of two stores that sell CBD near Evansville and wholesaler kyhempgoods.com based in Kentucky, said CBD can exist without THC, however the product also doesn't contain other beneficial cannabinoids. 

A law passed in April 2017 allowed for patient possession of CBD but didn’t outline how people could acquire products. Nate Chute/IndyStar

Advocates of CBD oil say those products don't have as many benefits as full spectrum CBD oil products. 

Sen. Jim Tomes, R-Wadesville, plans to file legislation expanding who can have CBD oil under state law. He said he's received calls from people who've used the product to treat arthritis, Parkinson disease and mental illnesses. 

"I just don’t understand why is there such a resistance to allow people to get this product here," Tomes said. "You can't abuse it. It either works or it doesn’t."

Last week, Hill deemed CBD illegal in an official opinion, regardless of the amount of THC in the product. 

Hill said the only condition under which using CBD oil is legal in the state is if an epileptic patient is on the state's CBD registry that lawmakers created earlier this year. However, it is unclear how those patients would obtain the oil since it would be illegal to sell it in the state, under Hill's interpretation.

"Simply put," Hill said, "cannabidiol is a Schedule 1 controlled substance because marijuana is a schedule 1 controlled substance." 

Renschler worried that Hill's personal stance against medicinal marijuana, clouded his ability to offer an opinon solely based on the law.

Confusion over current law emerged almost immediately after Holcomb signed the bill creating the CBD oil registry for epileptic patients.

Indiana State Excise Police quickly confiscated the product from nearly 60 stores, arguing the law only allowed those on the registry to have CBD.

 That, however, seemed to contradict a 2014 industrial hemp law that Indiana State Police and advocates of CBD said legalized the substance as long as it contains less than 0.3 percent of THC. 

State excise police stopped seizing products but waited to return any products until "results of further lab testing are received and the legal analysis pursuant to Indiana law is complete." 

Many stores, selling the product for general use, lost hundreds of dollars worth of inventory. But some stores already put the products back on their shelves prior to Hill's statement, and now could once again have their products confiscated by excise police.

Renschler said he isn't backing down, at least not yet. He said he'll at least keep his products on the shelf during the 60-day period Holcomb has promised to only issue warnings.

He said the industry will likely need to lobby at the Statehouse the next legislative session, which starts in January. 

"We’re not going to go out easily," Renschler said. "We’re going to drag our heels and see what we can accomplish in those 60 days to get the governor's office and the attorney general to wake up."