Cannabis board urges rulemaking to shield Vermont hemp businesses from federal shift

Kyle Harris, a commissioner on the Cannabis Control Board, and Gabriel "Gabe" Gilman, the board’s general counsel, told a legislative committee on May 12 that proposed Section 323 would give the board the flexibility to regulate downstream hemp products if federal changes take effect in November 2026.

They said recent federal shifts and an unintended loophole created after the 2018 Farm Bill produced an interstate market for intoxicating cannabinoids derived from hemp and left state regulators scrambling to protect consumers. "My child or yours can take their Venmo card, go on the internet and have mailed to them in many places what anybody would recognize as a cannabis product that would get them high," Gilman said, describing the practical consequence of the federal gap.

The board described Rule 2.17, adopted in 2023, as the state’s working line between non‑intoxicating hemp and regulated cannabis. Gilman told the committee the rule has allowed limited sales for very low‑THC products outside dispensaries but left enforcement and…