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DEA Defends Stance That Synthetic Cannabis Compound HHC Is Federally Banned In Response To Industry Lawsuits

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3 weeks ago

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The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is resisting efforts by two hemp companies to resist the determination that it is a cannabinoid It is illegal synthetically produced from components of the cannabis plant.

The DEA issued a rule last month saying that was already the case made hexahydrocannabinol (HHC) an illegal substance Under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the agency will now assign the compound its own unique drug code for classification.

That move is being challenged in a series of lawsuits by hemp businesses that say the agency’s decision is “unlawful.”

In addition to filing petitions for review, the companies are also petitioning federal courts to block the agency’s action while the lawsuits proceed.

The DEA, in briefs filed in the cases this week, argued that each applicant “does not meet any of the factors necessary to demonstrate that it should await review.”

“The rule does not affect HHC’s previous status as a Schedule I substance; all it does is list HHC separately and assign it a separate drug code,” the agency’s brief said.

“With or without the final rule, HHC is a controlled substance. Thus, even if this Court stayed the final rule pending review, (companies) would continue to be subject to existing legal and commercial risks for HHC-related actions,” they say, “Contrary, the suspension would undermine the government’s efforts to improve the regulation of HHC, including the permitted amount or approval process for public permits for HHC. Interests also favor a stay, which would create confusion about HHC’s status as a controlled substance.”

HHC can be found in trace amounts in cannabis plants, but it is also synthesized from hydrogenated cannabidiol (CBD). Delta-9 is sometimes sprayed on cannabis flowers that are low in THC, the most well-known psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, and its psychoactive effects are said to be similar.

While the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp and its derivatives with less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC, the DEA says that only applies to naturally occurring cannabinoids, not synthetic ones. Accordingly, the agency’s position is that HHC does not fall within the definition of legal hemp.

One of the pending cases, filed by Bluestar Operations, LLC before the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, refers to a prior ruling in that jurisdiction. the hemp-derived cannabinoid THC-O-acetate is federally legal Despite the DEA’s claims to the contrary.

“Congress deliberately used broad statutory language and did not prohibit cannabinoids that are subject to common extraction, refining, conversion, hydrogenation, distillation, or similar manufacturing processes commonly used in the hemp industry,” the complaint states.

The DEA’s move “conflicts with the plain text, structure, and intent of the 2018 Farm Bill and inserts unlawful limitations that Congress neither intended nor enacted,” it says. The agency’s action “has already caused specific and immediate harm to the petitioner, including substantial compliance costs, business uncertainty, reputational damage, disruption of business relationships, and interference with ongoing operations.”

“Congress, not executive agencies such as the DEA, defines the scope of federal criminal liability. The DEA has no authority to curtail Congress’s legalization of hemp-cannabinoids through an interpretive construction that the statutory text does not support.”

Bluestar said in its new response to the DEA’s initial response brief that the agency “cannot defend the merits of treating hemp-derived HHC as a Schedule I controlled substance, which this Court rejected against binding Circuit precedent” in the previous ThC-O-acetate case.

“The respondents have recast the impugned DEA rule as a weightless ‘technical correction’ that harms no one and decides nothing,” he said. “They have then flipped the script by arguing that Bluestar lacks standing to challenge. Respondents can’t have it both ways.”

The other new lawsuit was filed by IHC Investments, Inc. in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which previously ruled on the federal legalization of hemp through the 2018 Farm Bill. removed the limits on the wide range of molecules produced by the cannabis plant-delta-8 including the psychoactive cannabinoid THC.

The petition states that “the DEA effectively, and therefore unlawfully, attempts to expand federal criminal liability through administrative interpretation that is not supported by the plain statutory text of the enabling legislation.”

“Congress did not prohibit converted cannabinoids, hydrogenated cannabinoids, or cannabinoids subject to common processing techniques,” the complaint states. “Congress did not expressly authorize the DEA to criminalize broad categories of hemp-derived cannabinoids through administrative interpretation.”

Both petitions argue that the DEA’s move last month violates the central question doctrine, which holds that if an agency wants to decide a matter of national importance, that action must be protected by clear authorization from Congress.

The agency’s HHC ban “has enormous economic and political significance affecting the multibillion-dollar nationwide hemp industry,” says the lawsuit brought by Bluestar.

David Sergi, the attorney leading the new Ninth Circuit case for IHC Investments, said in a press release Thursday that the DEA’s action “directly conflicts” with the 2018 federal Farm Bill legalizing hemp and its derivatives.

“The DEA’s ruling has caused immediate and specific harm to hemp businesses across the nation,” he said. “That reclassification has led to immediate cancellation of contracts, loss of banking relationships and potential destruction of important inventory.”

The DEA, for its part, said in a rule it filed last month that “only tetrahydrocannabinols in or derived from the cannabis plant — not synthetic tetrahydrocannabinols — are exempt from regulation as ‘hemp tetrahydrocannabinol.’

“For further clarification, tetrahydrocannabinols produced through chemical conversion, even when considered synthetically produced when derived from hemp for purposes of the CSA, are not classified as ‘tetrahydrocannabinol in hemp'” under the 2018 Farm Bill, the agency said.

The Federal Register notice was not the first time the DEA addressed HHC’s legal status.

In a 2023 letter, Terrance Boos, chief of the DEA’s Drug and Chemical Evaluation Section, wrote: HHC “does not occur naturally in the cannabis plant and can only be obtained syntheticallyand therefore it is not within the definition of hemp”.

The new filing, signed by DEA Administrator Terrance Cole, said, “this rule does not in any way affect the continued status of hexahydrocannabinol as a controlled substance.”

“This action, as an administrative matter, establishes a separate and specific listing of hexahydrocannabinol in Schedule I of the CSA and assigns a DEA drug code to that substance,” he said. “This action will allow the DEA to establish an aggregate production quota and issue individual manufacturing and purchase quotas to DEA-registered manufacturers of hexahydrocannabinol, which were previously issued individual quotas for these purposes under the tetrahydrocannabinol drug code.”

The DEA’s release cited a move it made last year International drug control organizations to add HHC II of the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances—but the document fails to note that when the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) took the measure, the US was the only country to abstain from voting.

The DEA said the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “conforms to the direct listing and drug code assignment of hexahydrocannabinol in the CSA.”

Meanwhile, under provisions of a large-scale spending bill signed by President Donald Trump late last year, the federal definition of legal cannabis will change in November. If that language does not change or its the effective date has been postponed, as requested by some members of parliamentonly hemp products with a total of 0.4 milligrams of THC per container will remain legal after November 12th.

At the same time, however, the Trump administration is going wider reschedule marijuana under federal lawwith a A DEA hearing on the matter will begin next week.

Read the last one signings in the following cases:

Photo by Mike Latimer.

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Will the top World Cup expert in the fruit, vegetable, and horticulture sector come from Canada, the U.S. or Belgium?

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9 hours ago

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July 20, 2026

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FreshPublishers 2026 World Cup Group Stage






The World Cup is coming to an end, with the third-place play-off between France and England on Saturday, and the final between Spain and Argentina the following day. It won’t be long until the grand winner of FreshPublishers’ first World Cup pool is revealed.

© Fresh Publishers

As previously reported, Slim Kooli from Courchesne Laros is the favorite to win the €1,000 prize. He has secured a comfortable lead over Nol Batist of North American Interstate Greenhouse Company, while buyer Bjorn Van Ryckeghem of Deprez Construct is currently in third place.

1 Sim School Spain 1–0 2–1 737 9716
2 Nol Batist France 2–1 1–1 674 9433
3 Bjorn Van Ryckeghem France 2–2 3–1 674 9264
4 Christian Anton Smedshaug England 1–2 1–2 659 9134
5 Perry Springintveld Spain 1–1 2–1 647 9105
6 Willem Tijssen Spain 2–0 2–1 710 9098
7 Hans Borsboom Spain 2–1 2–1 528 9058
8 Bart Triemstra Spain 2–1 2–1 737 9052
9 Youness Bensaid Spain 2–1 1–1 722 8954
10 Vijay Dijkstra Portugal 2–0 2–1 382 8953

However, there have been some surprises during the tournament, and bonus points must be added, so we will keep the suspense a little longer. On Monday we will find out who is the main World Cup announcer in the international fruit, vegetable and horticulture sector…



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States Move To Let First Responders Use Marijuana And Psychedelics To Treat PTSD

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9 hours ago

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July 20, 2026

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“When you’re in the fire service, or in any of the first response industries, or especially in the military, things are going to accumulate over time, and what happens is you see a lot of things, crazy things that at least seem normal.”

By Amanda Watford, Stateline

This year more states have looked beyond traditional counseling and medication to help first responders deal with traumatic stress.

Firefighters, police, and emergency medical personnel routinely experience fatal accidents, violent crimes, and other traumatic events that can leave lasting psychological scars.

“When you’re in the fire service, or the first response industry, or especially the military, things just pile up over time, and what happens is you see a lot of things, crazy things that at least seem normal,” said Jason Cerrano, a retired firefighter and paramedic with more than 20 years of experience in Missouri. Cerrano is now director of research and commercial development at IDEX Fire & Safety.

In Ohio, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law last month a measure that will create the Post-Traumatic Injuries Commission to review requests from first responders to help cover treatment costs.

Maryland took a different approach this year, enacting a law protecting firefighters, emergency medical technicians, paramedics and other rescue workers. employment discrimination for the illegal use of medical marijuana outside of work.

The new law, which will take effect in October, applies to medical cannabis patients who test positive for cannabis metabolites but are impaired while working.

Several other states are exploring emerging therapies.

A new Connecticut law expands a pilot program at Yale University studying psilocybin-assisted therapy Allowing any state resident 18 years of age or older to participate, provided they meet clinical eligibility criteria established by the Yale University Institutional Review Board. Previously, the pilot program was limited to veterans, retired first responders and frontline healthcare workers.

Missouri lawmakers advanced a bill allowing veterans and first responders to receive the psychedelics psilocybin and ibogaine in approved research studies. Under medical supervision for PTSD and other mental health conditions. The legislative session adjourned in May before lawmakers sent a bill to the governor.

This story was first published by Stateline.

Image courtesy of Kristie Gianopulos.

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Standard Wellness expands into Cleveland with dispensary acquisition

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1 day ago

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July 19, 2026

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Standard Wellness has entered into an agreement with License in the Flats, LLC to enter into definitive agreements to acquire a dispensary license in the Flats following the required regulatory review period. At the end of that period, the company and License in the Flats intend to execute those agreements and then continue to develop the dispensary into a retail location branded The Forest Cleveland.

Following regulatory approval of the change of ownership by the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control, the new dispensary will become the Company’s first retail location in the city of Cleveland, where the Company is headquartered.

Additionally, the Company announced the divestiture of The Forest Sandusky and The Forest Springfield, its Ohio dispensaries, to Greenlight, again subject to pending regulatory approvals.

“We are excited to expand our presence in the city of Cleveland and serve guests in our hometown,” said Kate Ols, Vice President of Retail for Standard Wellness. “As our business continues to grow, we are focused on building a retail network that will best position us to serve our communities for the long term. At the same time, we are proud of the role our Sandusky and Springfield dispensaries have played in Ohio’s cannabis history, and we are confident that those communities will continue to grow under Greenlight’s leadership.”

Standard Wellness and Greenlight are working closely together to support a smooth transition for staff and guests throughout the transfer process. As established operators in Ohio and Missouri, the companies share a commitment to strengthening the regulated cannabis industry and serving the communities in which they operate.

The new dispensary is expected to serve both local residents and visitors while completing the Company’s Northeast Ohio footprint.

Under Ohio law, a cannabis operator cannot hold more than eight dispensary licenses statewide. The acquisition of the Cleveland license and divestiture of The Forest Sandusky and The Forest Springfield allows Standard Wellness to continue to meet Ohio’s property limits while strategically repositioning its Ohio retail footprint and focusing investments in key markets.

Forest Sandusky and Forest Springfield have played significant roles in the evolution of Ohio’s cannabis industry. Sandusky was the site of the state’s first legal cannabis sale in January 2019, and Springfield became the first part of Ohio’s cannabis industry merger and acquisition transaction when Standard Wellness purchased Pure Ohio Wellness’ dispensary.

For more information:
Standard Wellness Holdings
standardwellness.com/

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