A federal judge this week dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Hemp Industries Association (HIA) and RE Botanicals Inc. against DEA. A related lawsuit, however, remains pending in an appeals court in the nation’s capital.
In a memorandum opinion published May 3, U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg found he lacked “subject-matter jurisdiction” over the controversy between plaintiffs and DEA. Hemp Industry Daily first reported the decision.
The litigation arose after DEA published an interim final rule (IFR) that it said merely conformed its regulations to amendments to the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in the 2018 Farm Bill—also known as the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018.
The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp with a delta-9 THC concentration not exceeding 0.3% on a dry weight basis. But a cannabis derivative that exceeds 0.3% is a Schedule I controlled substance, DEA stated in the IFR, even if the plant from which it was derived doesn’t exceed the THC limit in the law.
The row between industry and DEA relates to how hemp should be treated during its production—when THC temporarily exceeds the 0.3% threshold—and before the finished product is manufactured.
