Alabama Rule Change Would Increase Medical Marijuana THC Limit

Senator Paul Sanford proposed a rule change to Leni’s Law at a recent Legislative Council meeting. If approved, the allowable THC limit would increase up to 3-percent THC by volume. The Senator says the change was always the intention of the original legislation.

Families have said that they need more THC for better results, Montgomery Adviser reports. Some of the Legislature is in agreement. Mike Ball sponsored the bill. So far, no legislators have spoken in opposition of the rule change.

Senator Sanford said, “We’re trying to get them to follow the intent of the law to make THC 3-percent of the total volume of the compound instead of 3-percent (relative to) CBD. Three percent (relative to CBD) lowers it to a level that makes it not effective for the patients.”

The Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences and a Colorado testing lab say the increase would be too much.

Director of CMT Laboratories in Colorado, Claire Ohman said, “That’s a lot of THC. If we go back to the example of the oil and you have the 8.5 oz. bottle and you took 3 percent of that, that’s a tremendous amount of THC.”

The measurements of liquid and THC is a bit different. So, an 8.5 oz. bottle would contain roughly 7,500mg of THC in the entire bottle. That would be what the change to the rule would mean. That 8.5 oz. bottle would have 750 doses in it, as a suggested dose is 10mg.

Department of Forensic Sciences Michael Sparks said, “They don’t understand that it will open up the amount of THC in there.”

The rule is supposed to create a maximum level, not a suggested one. Those with a medical marijuana card could purchase whichever concentration of CBD oil that they’d prefer. Ohman said that taking too much THC would just be “unpleasant”; it wouldn’t pose an adverse health consequence.

Ohman said, “Having THC in there is not a bad thing, but this is a tremendous amount of THC we’re talking about. The percent of total volume is a lot.”

Ohman also said, “The states that have legalized cannabis have done a tremendous amount of work and have really ironed out a lot of the problems associated with legalization. There’s tremendous value in reaching out and talking to people in (a legalized state’s) Legislature as well as in the industry. There’s a lot to be learned, and we can serve as role models or provide a map towards legalization.”