Re-Cap of ‘Revitalize Hemp Act’ (HB2775) Hearing

Q&A with Graham Redfern

Question: When SB 903 originally passed in 2023, How did that impact your business

When SB903 passed in 2023 it created a new system where all hemp related businesses would have to change basically their entire business and sales models that they were currently working under, because 90 plus percent of their products – overnight – became illegal due to the stringent regulations put in by this detrimental hemp act. The current regulations, that VDACS currently works under, were created by the medical marijuana monopoly system in Virginia to take out the small guys.

SB903 gave the Virginia Department Agriculture, In the Virginia budget, 20+ million dollars to hire 15 new inspectors and five new administrative positions to go out and use the new regulatory situation in laws to make money off of small businesses by finding them for the products that they changed overnight. Virginia’s hemp regulation enforcement appears to be operating like extortion. Businesses are being issued fines for alleged violations, and the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) is offering reduced fines if they are paid quickly. Instead of issuing warnings, the state is immediately fining small businesses, sometimes for products they aren’t even selling or aware are illegal.

The Virginia Hemp

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Hosted by Barbara Biddle (District Hemp) the Virginia Hemp Policy Panelists were Graham Redfern (Redfern Hemp Co), Evan Somogyi (Kulture), Eric Spanbauer (East Coast Collective) and Jhonnathan Medina Alvarez (Pickleball Pro).

Question: How was, HB2775, The Revitalize Hemp Act, going to preserve some of the safeguards within SB903, while, at the same time, change the definition of hemp allowing you to be Federally compliant in regards to the ratio of Delta nine to CBD.

Graham: The Revitalize Hemp Act (HB2775) was clearly misunderstood by the regulators when we introduced it, because the entire purpose of the Revitzlize Hemp Act was to just, simply, align Virginia law with the federal law only in the sense of the Delta nine percentage, so that Virginia could be more competitive within the national marketplace. Whereas, right now, we’re not competitive at all. All the big national hemp companies pulled out of the Virginia market — us, included (we began a company down in North Carolina in order to start our transition out of Virginia). What our bill didn’t do was it didn’t roll back any of the regulations, under the VDACS’ Hemp Enforcement Program, to stop kids from consuming it, to stop marketing it to kids, and to keep all the regulations on the child resistant packaging, as well as, prohibition on mimicking animals and gummy worms. All that Child Safety stayed in play. But it seems that the state did not actually read the bill or understand it before they fought it. The Revitlizae Hemp Act does nothing more than take away the 25 to one and the two milligram cap per product reuglations. This would allow Virginia’s hemp companies to go back to the under point three, Delta nine, total THC per prodcut which is the current Federal law.. So HB2775 intention was to align it with the federal law and take away the the nonsensical 25 to one precedence that they put in place.

Question: If you were advising the next Governor of Virginia, what would you tell them to do when it comes to hemp legislation going into next session.

While talking to a new governor and a new administration, I would let them know how unfair and inefficient the old system of regulating cannabis has been: that what was created under the Northam Administration, the limited system that they created under the medical marijuana Board of Pharmacy program that now is regulated by the Cannabis Control Authority (CCA), should be swept under the rug and a completely new system should be set up geared towards helping Virginia businesses. And the focus should be on Virginia consumers being the ones that you protect and not out-of-state Stock-holding companies that don’t care about Virginians. The new governor should realize that cannabis is an agricultural crop, and when put into a food, it’s considered an agricultural food, regulated by VDACS — and not the owner of Hilton Hotels, who’s on the board of CCA.

In Conclusion, the ‘power that be‘ have thwarted our scalable plans in Virginia. Fortunately, as of now, it will not put us out of business. Unlike many of these out-of-state operators, the Redfern Hemp are actually passionate about the plant; we care about our customers (not patients)!

HB2775 Videos & Transcriptions:

FULL HEARING: The above video is the full hearing which took place in the morning on Wednesday, January 29th. Below is the transcription of the HB2775’s sponsor, Kelly-Convirs Fowler, opening statement.

THE CHAIR 

Welcome to the last subcommittee meeting before crossover, we have one Bill in front of us. Delegate Fowler.

KELLY FOWLER | 21st District in the House of Virginia Delegates

Thank you. Mr. Chair, the HB2775 is a bill that was brought to me by farmers, hemp farmers, and small businesses. So this Bill is for them. All it does is simply clarify Virginia’s definition of hemp products by aligning it with the federal definition. Right now, it can be confusing for producers, for retailers and consumers. Aligning with a federal standard will provide much more clarity and consistency.

This change reduces regulatory burdens and supports our hemp industry’s growth. I hope it’s the will of the committee to report this bill, and I have subject matter experts here with any technical questions.

REDFERN TEAM COMMENT: Although we didn’t expect to speak on behalf of the Bill since the committee initially allotted only two minutes for public comment, they eventually yielded due to the overwhelming support for HB2775.

GRAHAM REDFERN | Redfern Hemp

My name is Graham Redfern. I’m the owner of Redfern Hemp Company based out of Caroline County, Virginia, where I farm industrial hemp. I have a retail location as well off Exit 104 in Caroline County, and my kitchen is in Richmond. I employ 12 people, and I do not want to move my businesses to North Carolina. There’s a market that everybody’s losing out on because of Virginia’s current definition of hemp (under SB903). Thank you for your time, Sir. Appreciate it.

JOE DOMINO | Redfern Hemp

My name is Joe Domino. I’ve been marketing in this industry for a while, and I actually read all the customer testimonials. These products really help the customers, and a lot of them have to purchase the products they enjoy online or are forced to cross state lines. I think the biggest problem is synthetics, and all these small businesses are not producing synthetics. They started out in this industry not with a lot of money; [they started out in this industry] because they love this plant and they love their customers. Passing this bill will allow these companies to grow small businesses in Virginia and to compete nationally. Thank you.

VDACS AGAINST TESTIMONY: It’s very unfortunate that Nikeya Thomas, head of VDACS’ Hemp Enforcement program, didn’t reach out to the authors of HB2775 before misrepresenting the ‘Revitalize Hemp Act’s’ intent erroneously before the House Natural Resources subcommittee. If she would’ve spoken to us, or attended our Hemp Policy Roundtable the night prior, she would’ve learned that HB2775 never would have permitted intoxicating products upward of 15% THC, nor would it allow for synthetic cannabinoids which would remain illegal under the status quo of SB903.

CHAIR INVITES VDACS TO SPEAK

Do we have a representative here from VDCAS? We would love to have opine on this Bill have you a pine on this bill? I think I would define delegate Ronnie’s question is, please apply and let us know what you think.

NIKEYA THOMAS | Office of Hemp Enforcement at VA Dept. of Ag & Consumer Sciences (VDACS)

Hello, Mr. Chairman and committee. My name is Nikeya Thomas. I’m the program manager for the Office of Hemp Enforcement at VDACS, and I would love to provide some context around the impact of these changes. And, so typically in our program, we do assess violations to products that do not have the correct ratio of CBD to THC to ensure that products are safe for consumers. And so our concern is public safety. Our concern is that this change will open up the marketplace for variations of products.

There is an addition to Delta nine in the definition, which excludes synthetic cannabinoids, such as delta eight, Delta 10, HHC, which can be very harmful to consumers. And so our concern is public safety in this change. Our concern is that this will open up the marketplace to highly intoxicating products.

SENATOR LOPEZ

Just a quick question for the expert from VDACS: So would you say that expanding hemp without expanding the entire plant regulation is going to create disparities and more public health concerns as hemp derived derivatives attempt to replace THC.

NIKEYA THOMAS

I would say yes. I would say that this creates products that can hit the marketplace, that can have THC content up towards 15% 15% 15% and what I mean by that is they could have up to 15% of Delta eight, Delta 10, HHC, so this exclusion of other isomers would create a concern for VDX and how we regulate these products.

CHAIR
Thank you. Thank you very much. I don’t see any other questions from the subcommittee, I will say a delegate, based on the conversations that are happening up here. I imagine this, this, this, this bill may stall here…