Citing health risks, easy access for youth and a lack of regulation, officials in Springfield, Massachusetts are moving to ban what some call "gas station weed."
“Gas station weed,” “synthetic cannabis” or even “Synthetically Derived Cannabinoid Products” – whatever you call it, officials in Springfield want it off store shelves.
That’s the goal of a new ordinance Mayor Domenic Sarno and other city leaders are aiming to put before the city council.
The mayor says while there are regulations for adult-use marijuana in Massachusetts, the amount of people and products skirting those rules via unregulated, synthetic cannabis is getting out of hand.
“They resemble candies and snacks - they're easily available at gas stations, bodegas, retail stores, alongside bags of chips and chocolate bars,” Sarno said at city hall Wednesday. “Most of these unlawful products are packaged without identifying active ingredients or THC content. There were some that were brought to our attention, [saying] the ingredients ‘make you feel wonderful.' Customers have no way of knowing the potency and potentially dangerousness of this product”
At a press conference carried by Focus Springfield, Sarno and others stood before a table loaded with the products, including “hemp wraps,” complete with colorful packaging and individual rolls, sporting flavors like “banana cream,” “perfect pear” and “honey pot swirl.”
With some packing labels like “4 for 99¢,” they’re not your average joint by any means, according to the city’s Health and Human Services Commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris, who identified them as synthetic cannabinoids.
While the marijuana products sold at licensed, retail pot shops are subject to all kinds of state inspections, the hemp products in question circumvent those regulations.
Many contain synthetically-derived THC that mimics the naturally-occurring – and regulated – amount of THC in adult-use cannabis.
Caulton-Harris says there’s little research on such synthetic cannabinoids – but according to the CDC, they’re not exactly healthy.
“… they identify some clinical risks – neurological: agitation, confusion, seizures and stroke … psychiatric: hallucinations, psychoactive behavior, suicidal thoughts” the commissioner listed. “… physical: depression, fast heartbeat, seizures, severe nausea, chest pain, kidney failure and death.”
Without naming any specific vendors, the commissioner says the city’s identified at least a dozen shops in the area carrying the products.
Among the city's concerns - some "Synthetically Derived Cannabinoid Products" in general have been found to contain harmful chemicals, pesticides, mold and heavy metals including lead and mercury.
Another concern is how easy it is for the city’s youth to get their hands on the items.
“What I've witnessed when I go into the stores, whether I'm at work or even off of work, I've noticed children … let’s say a young, 17-, 16-year-old woman with her little sisters by her sides, and she's asking for a specific name, let’s say, ‘Let me get a Gang Bang Power Pack,’”said city Cannabis Compliance Coordinator Xavier Williams, thinking of an example. “And then that store owner will then give a single loosie … a pre-roll synthetic that we don't even know how it can harm our community.”
Mayor Sarno says the proposed ordinance that will go before the council would "prohibit" the creation and distribution of such products – fining shops that carry them $300 for each offense.
He and others believe it would make Springfield the first city in Massachusetts to have such rules in place – potentially beating the state to the punch as lawmakers on Beacon Hill weigh similar moves.
In fact, hours after Wednesday's press conference, the House passed a bill filled with major marijuana regulation reforms.
House Bill 4187 packs many changes for the state's Cannabis Control Commission. Among them would be allowing for the regulation and taxation of hemp-based products, according to the State House News Service.
The outlet reports "all hemp-based products would need to be registered with the CCC” if the bill earns the governor’s signature. It would also ban vendors from selling them without a license.
Speaking at the press conference and before the bill’s passage, local cannabis shop owner Lamont Clemons says the illegal gas station weed not only poses health risks – it also undermines the efforts of those who jumped through hoops to open their businesses.
“This was a very difficult process - to be able to win the RFP process here, amongst competition that's all around the United States trying to get into the city, and for us to be able to do that locally and build it and then have some constraints like these illegal products being sold when it could potentially be sales for us, on the legal side and regulated side… it’s really key,” said the founder of Primus Dispensary on State Street.
The Springfield ordinance proposal is on the city council’s June 9 agenda.
In a statement sent to WAMC, a spokesperson for the Cannabis Control Commission said in-part
"The Cannabis Control Commission [...] has been vocal about the need to regulate intoxicating hemp and offered testimony in front of the state Legislature last year about the dangers these products pose. Hemp products are too easily available to young people, may be completely untested, and compete with regulated cannabis products at lower tax rates.
"The Commission does not have the authority to regulate intoxicating hemp products. The House passed legislation this week that would give state agencies the tools to regulate hemp, and we stand ready to work with the Legislature to rein in these unregulated, uncontrolled hemp products alongside our partners in state government.”
