A new study indicates the widely available intoxicating hemp products in Massachusetts, often found in convenience stores, are frequently mislabeled, illegally potent, and pose significant public health risks. These unregulated products — some mimicking popular candies— are linked to increased hospitalizations. Diti Kohli recently reported on this for the Boston Globe.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: Thanks for being here!
Diti Kohli, Boston Globe: Of course!
You write that a recently published white paper, from Easthampton-based cannabis operator INSA, shows that the public health concerns over gas station weed may be well-founded.
Yes, INSA took some time to actually go to a lot of the gas stations and corner stores in which these products were sold, and get them tested, which has been a concern for the regulated cannabis market in the state for quite a long time, considering that they are held to relatively high standards for testing their own products before they can be sold to consumers.
In your story, there are accompanying photos of gas station hemp candies. They look a lot like Sour Patch Kids. They don’t look like they could be dangerous. Beyond the labeling and potency issues, what are the main health and safety concerns associated with these intoxicating hemp products?
I mean, I think the idea is that on the legal side of the market, the specific THC side of the market, that we’re often talking about, there’s a number of restrictions. You know, if you’re buying a sort of edible cannabis product, it has to be uniformly packaged. Like you said, it’s not allowed to be interesting shapes or colors like gummy worms or bears, and it can only have a potency of a maximum of five milligrams.
A lot of the hemp specific edibles that we’re seeing at these gas stations and such, are not having that. So, for example, in the INSA study, they found that some of the packs of hemp gummies had 500mg of THC per serving, which is about 100 times the state limit.
And this has caused some problems in local schools … having these products out there so easily available?
Yeah, so going into a dispensary, your license or ID is always scanned and a lot of the time is done in another room before you even interact with any cannabis products or speak to a salesperson.
But there are complaints that these gas stations and corner stores [hemp] products are being sold without age verification, so they can often get into the hands of children and teenagers.
I spoke to Chris Madsen, who’s the dean of students at Springfield High School, and he said that just in the last academic year, since September, he’s seen as many as ten incidents where students who consumed hemp products in some shape or form, as they later found out, you know, were so intoxicated and so sort of unable to speak or attend class normally, that oftentimes [they] had to be taken to the hospital.
Wow. But hemp itself is not regulated, right?
It’s sort of in a legal gray area. While cannabis, [a] specific THC that we tend to think of, is not legal on the federal level, but is legal within the state, hemp is actually the opposite.
[Hemp] was legalized in the 2018 Farm Bill on the Congressional level, mostly for its uses beyond actual consumption. So, things like textiles, construction, industrial agriculture. Hemp has a lot of uses in those spaces where it’s not [an] intoxicating product at all.
But that bill passing has meant that in the last couple of years, folks have used the product not as it’s intended under that law. And that’s where some of these intoxicating, whether that be pre-rolls, gummies, or other smokable products, have come up with hemp.
So, what specific actions are Massachusetts lawmakers currently considering to address this availability and danger in these hemp products?
There’s a lot going on. Currently the Cannabis Control Commission, which is the state agency that’s in charge of regulating the legal cannabis industry, says that they do not have oversight over these hemp products, specifically. There’s some question as to whether or not that will change in a bill that’s currently going through the Statehouse.
There’s also a proposal to potentially have hemp beverages, which are intoxicating beverages sold alongside products at the liquor store, you know, regular seltzers that you would buy that oftentimes taste very similar.
And then some individual cities and towns are also thinking about taking action. Springfield, in particular, is debating a proposal to ban what it is calling “gas station weed” through an ordinance, and that’s fairly far along the process now.
[Editor’s update: On June 23, 2025, the Springfield City Council approved a new rule prohibiting the sale of synthetic cannabis in corner stores and similar retailers.]
Easthampton, Mass. medical marijuana dispensary INSA recently released a study that found mislabeled and potent hemp products are widely available to all. Read More
