Wyoming’s House Education Committee last week tabled a bill that would have imposed penalties for sales to and possession of synthetic cannabis products for individuals under 21 years old, Cowboy State Daily reports. The committee voted unanimously to curb the measure in order to allow further clarification of what defines a synthetic cannabis product. 

The proposal would have imposed fines between $250 and $750 to individuals caught selling the cannabis products to minors and those caught purchasing the products would have faced misdemeanor charges, including a $50 fine or community service. The misdemeanor charge could be expunged once the offender fulfilled those penalties, the report says.

Several individuals asked the committee to change the bill’s definition of “synthetic cannabis,” arguing that, as written, the measure would ban those under 21 from buying CBD products. During his testimony, cannabis researcher Sean Murphy said the bill should ban “synthetic isomers.”  

“What we should be doing is… protecting people and finding bad operators that are selling Delta 8, Delta 9. The term is synthetic isomers; these get you high whereas [CBD] products don’t get you high.” — Murphy via Cowboy State Daily 

The Wyoming Department of Health also backed changing the definitions included in the bill as written.    

Rep. Sandy Newsome (R), the bill’s sponsor, told the committee that the measure, as written, would not ban topical products and that she kept the CBD language in the legislation to “get away from this whack-a-mole theory” in which the Legislature bans new drugs individually rather than all at once.     

The bill could be reconsidered by the committee with or without changes.  

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