R. Lorraine Collins, PhD, professor and associate dean for research in the University at Buffalo’s School of Public Health and Health Professions, supports the white paper’s proposed policies. She said that setting THC limits for cannabis products and taxing products based on THC content would be easy to implement, calling these strategies an “excellent start.”
For a THC cap to work to be effective, Collins said laws would need to cap the potency of all cannabis products, including ones that come directly from the cannabis plant and those that are derived from hemp or cannabis.
“The cannabis industry is very smart,” she said. “One of the things that they do is if you say you’re going to cap the potency of cannabis flower, they’ll increase the potency in other cannabis products. So the key is to cap THC in ‘all cannabis products.’”
In addition, she said the laws would need to be broad enough to cover cannabis products developed in the future.
As for individual limits on cannabis purchases, Collins expressed some reservations about this policy since the U.S. doesn’t have similar limits for other adult-use products such as alcohol and tobacco.
Rogan agreed: “This is an adult we’re talking about. This is somebody who should be able to make their own decisions,” she said. “It really goes back to personal choice — you have [the] freedom to do what you want; we’re hoping you’re going to be responsible.”
In addition, Collins said that individual purchase limits may not be very effective. “What’s to stop a person from going from retail outlet to retail outlet?” she said. “You could accumulate a lot of cannabis that way, even if there’s a limit on how much you can buy at a time.”
Rogan is also concerned about the impact that a cap on THC limits and purchase limits might have on people using cannabis to treat medical conditions.
“When you’re treating cancer or chronic pain, you often need high doses of THC,” she said. “So is it fair to that person to have to go to the [cannabis] dispensary every day and buy more often because they can’t buy the products in a concentrated form?”
This content was originally published here.