SENATE LAW AND PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 3944

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JUNE 12, 2023

      The Senate Law and Public Safety Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 3944.

      As reported by the committee, Senate Bill No. 3944 clarifies that modified, converted, or synthetically derived intoxicating tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) isomers, and specifically delta-8 THC, constitute THC for the purposes of the State’s controlled dangerous substance (CDS) schedules. 

     Tetrahydrocannabinols are currently listed as a Schedule I CDS, although industrial hemp and adult use cannabis are expressly excluded from this classification.  This bill clarifies the definitions of “hemp” and “hemp product,” as used in the “New Jersey Hemp Farming Act,” P.L.2019, c.238 (C.4:28-6 et al.), to specify that hemp and hemp products may not contain more than a 0.3 concentration of delta-8 THC by weight.

     Delta-8 THC occurs naturally in cannabis plants and can produce many of the same symptoms as delta-9 THC, which is one of the primary psychoactive compounds in cannabis and is the compound most commonly associated with cannabis intoxication.  However, because delta-8 THC only naturally occurs in cannabis in small quantities, it generally needs to be synthesized from cannabidiol (CBD) or delta-9 THC to occur in quantities large enough to cause intoxication. 

     This bill is intended to clarify that delta-8 THC is considered illegal for the purposes of State law unless produced pursuant to the "New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act," P.L.2021, c.16 (C.24:6I-31 et al.).