The bill comes weeks after Congress narrowed the definition of hemp in a way that makes many hemp products illegal. (Photo by Sophie Nieto-Muñoz/New Jersey Monitor)
By Sophie Nieto-Muñoz
Reprinted with permission
New Jersey Monitor
A bill that would give New Jersey businesses months to deplete their inventory of intoxicating hemp products is nearing final passage in the Legislature, weeks after Congress closed a federal loophole that had allowed for their sudden proliferation.
The measure, which is scheduled for votes before the state Senate and Assembly on Monday, is legislators’ latest attempt to address what bill sponsor Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex) calls a “crisis” of retailers selling sketchy hemp products to children.
“We’re creating a framework in the space of public health,” Ruiz said last week when the Senate’s budget committee advanced the legislation.
The bill seeks to align the state’s hemp laws with new federal definitions of hemp. A provision in the federal spending bill that ended the government shutdown in November bans hemp products with a total THC concentration of more than 0.4% starting next year. THC is the chemical compound that gets users high.
Under the New Jersey bill, hemp products cannot include more than 0.3% total THC, while hemp-derived products like gummies and vapes would be limited to 0.4 milligrams of THC per container. Products exceeding those limits would be treated as cannabis and be regulated by the state’s cannabis agency, meaning you would need a cannabis license to manufacture and sell them.
New Jersey’s measure would force some businesses to sell their products before the federal ban on intoxicating hemp products goes into effect in November 2026.
Hemp farmers have objected to the bill, saying they support state efforts to target retailers selling the kinds of hemp products Ruiz has railed against, but that the bill as written would amount to a blanket ban that would hurt family-owned hemp farms and manufacturers.
Kristen Goedde of cannabis testing lab Trichome Analytical urged lawmakers to await further federal action before restricting small hemp farmers who aren’t making products targeted to teens. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) has introduced a bill to overturn the new federal hemp restrictions, while Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has said he’s working on similar legislation but acknowledged it will be difficult to get it through Congress.
“I understand that the federal limits created the issues that are mirrored in this bill, but there are significant efforts on the federal side to revise the definition of hemp,” Goedde told the Assembly’s appropriations committee last week.
Sen. Teresa Ruiz has pushed for more state regulation of hemp products, saying many are advertised to children. (Photo by Dana DiFilippo/New Jersey Monitor)New Jersey lawmakers have for years attempted to regulate the hemp industry, ever since a change in federal law in 2018 gave a boost to the hemp industry but also led to the rise of myriad low-THC hemp products.
Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill last year to address concerns about children buying hemp products with high levels of THC at bodegas and gas stations, but much of the law never went into effect due to a legal challenge.
Last month’s changes at the federal level led New Jersey lawmakers to pivot to the current bill up for approval.
Under the bill, businesses would have some time to get rid of products that exceed the new definitions. Shops must liquidate their inventory by April 13, 2026, and liquor stores with hemp beverages on the shelves could sell their products until Nov. 13, 2026. Beverages sold during this period would be limited to 5 mg of total THC per serving or 10 mg of total THC per container.
After those dates, businesses could face fines of $100 for the first offense, $1,000 for the second offense, and $10,000 for subsequent offenses.
Beginning in November 2026 — when the federal ban goes into effect — any beverages that exceed hemp’s federal definition would be regulated as cannabis items, and can only be sold by businesses licensed by the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission.
Another major federal change could be coming after President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week loosening federal restrictions on marijuana. The order directs officials to work with Congress to update the definition of hemp to “allow Americans to benefit from access” to those products.
Bill Caruso, a cannabis attorney and acting president of New Jersey CannaBusiness Association, compared the bill up for approval Monday to the state’s cannabis legalization effort, which allowed people in the legacy market — meaning those who sold weed when it was illegal — to obtain cannabis licenses and open stores once it was legalized. That same kind of action will be applied to the hemp industry, he said.
“It’s going to provide a clear regulatory framework, and it’s going to put a banner and a beacon in the sky: If you’re in this game and you want to continue selling in one of the richest markets in the world, there’s a way to do it now,” he said.
