in our Spotlight on Business Report tonight who's keeping an eye on those hemp and CBD gummies being sold at convenience stores turns out no one and the state legislature is now pitching to put the sale of what they call intoxicating hemp products under the regulation of New Jersey's cannabis Regulatory Commission to keep them out of the hands of kids but a senior correspondent Joanna gagas reports opponents argue the new rules go too far these products are being sold at local convenience stores at liquor stores or at gas stations and making it more readily available to a market that shouldn't have their hands on it you've probably seen them hemp products right there on the Shelf easily accessible to teens and young adults but a bill moving through the legislature would require all hemp products to be regulated by the Cannabis Regulatory Commission or CRC because the federal government has not regulated Delta 8 specifically there is a loophole in the hemp law policy that allows for these products to be sold the confusion comes from the 2018 Farm Bill a federal law that legalized the sale of hemp products in the US Dr Lewis Nelson sees countless underage patients in the emergency department due to THC overdose he says the dosage requirements in that law were unclear it takes about 10 milligrams of THC to get high right we'll just use that as a number if your 3% THC in the product you could just eat a lot of product they could get to 10 milligrams right that's a loophole in the way it was intended in a legal cannabis store the maximum amount that you could have in a package is 100 milligrams you could walk into a convenience store as a 15-year-old and buy a th000 milligram product and that's very dangerous this bill creates actual dosage limits and prohibits the sale of synthetic THC but Nelson says it doesn't go far enough in the language to address all forms of cannabinoids it does say in there that's something to the effect of THC and similar products but that's not super clear right it would be better if it said THC and all can avonoids the New Jersey canab Business Association supports the move to regulate hemp under the CRC because consumers are buying products without knowing the real ingredients or how much THC is actually in them they recently tested several hemp cartridges we took it to a licensed cannabis lab to see what was on the inside the ingredients on the label did not match the ingredients in the cartridge it and of itself the other thing that we discovered is that each every one of those products had exceedingly high levels of THC while no one seems to argue the products need regulation the alcohol and beverage industry showed up to last Thursday's Senate hearing asking for a carve out to allow them to produce and sell hemp beverages Eric Orlando points to Minnesota as an example they've had a system in place for a few years now that allows alcohol manufacturers to make these products as well uh with a lot of local and state oversight and that those products from a state like Minnesota are currently being sold here in New Jersey so I would want to afford the same type of Rights and privileges to New Jersey breweries not an idea that the Bill's co-sponsor Senate Majority Leader Tessa Ruiz is on board with it was unfortunate that the uh the liquor industry and liquor adjacent individuals really came out in full force expressing such deep concern to their bottom line profit ABC law currently allows industry to sell tobacco and alcohol this is a product that doesn't fall quite in any one of those buckets let's give it to a commission that understands better about this product and could do a deeper dive so that then they can go back out and say these are the steps for we do also care about safety particularly keeping these products out of the hands of children I think though we also are reacting consumer demand as the Bill's written right now until the product is fully regulated it would only be sold in cannabis dispensaries to people 21 and older I'm Joan gagas andj Spotlight news support for the business report is provided by Riverview Jazz presenting the 11th annual Jersey City Jazz Festival May 29th to June 2nd event details including performance schedules and location are online at Jersey City jazz festival.com