Cannabis retailers in Connecticut would no longer be allowed to offer promotions and discounts, if a bill proposed in the state legislature passes.

That's one provision included in a measure proposed this week that would also allow some hemp farmers into the marketplace and attempt to make sure every cannabis product is sold in licensed dispensaries, among other changes.

The bill, proposed in the legislature's General Law committee, is in its nascent stages and would likely see alterations before any vote is taken. But industry insiders have expressed concerns over several of the provisions contained in the measure, including the proposal to end promotions.

Legislators see the law as a way to bring the state's cannabis industry more in line with the way alcohol is sold in Connecticut. "We thought that commercialization of marijuana was supposed to be sort of a social justice kind of thing, to decriminalize it, not to promote it," said state Rep. David Rutigliano, R-Trumbull. "These guys are putting these coupons in the Pennysaver."

Another proposal included in the measure would redefine a "high-THC product," preventing liquor stores and other retailers from selling cannabis-infused products. Other proposed changes to the state's cannabis law are intended to allow more cultivators into the marketplace, including some that already grow hemp.

"That's sort of an olive branch," Rutigliano said.

Ending cannabis promotions and discounts in Conn.

The bill, as it's currently written, would prohibit cannabis retailers from engaging in "advertising or marketing that includes a discounted price or other promotional offering as an inducement to purchase cannabis or any cannabis product."

Keith Farrell, creative director at Still River Wellness, said that "if the state wants the program to succeed — if they want sales to increase — they need to allow businesses to be as competitive as possible with neighboring markets."

"Massachusetts dispensaries already advertise promotions to our residents every day," he said. "Connecticut cannabis consumers get offers delivered to their inboxes and their phones that lure them out of state."

Cannabis prices have risen in Connecticut as supply has decreased, and Ben Zachs, COO of Fine Fettle, said discounts and promotions help the industry be competitive.

"I think it's horrible," he said. "We're more expensive than our neighbors now. Just like any industry, discounting is a business decision for the good of the business and the good of the consumer, and especially where our pricing is right now these options make a huge difference."

But state Rep. Mike D'Agostino, D-Hamden, chair of the legislature's general law committee, said alcohol retailers have similar restrictions. He said cannabis pricing laws would not mirror alcohol regulations but "it would in spirit."

"There's minimum bottle pricing in Connecticut. You can't discount below a certain price," he said. "We're seeing a bunch of flyers out there, 'Come to our store for 10 percent off of this or 10 percent off of that. We wanted to put it out there that we're not entirely sure we want the cannabis industry to turn into clipping Sunday coupons."

"We would like to standardize commercial cannabis along with liquor," Rutigliano said.

THC only in dispensaries in Conn.

Currently, state law allows for the sale of THC-infused products, such as seltzers, anywhere in the state if they contain less than 5 milligrams of THC per package or 1 milligram per serving.

A proposal would cut that to .5 milligrams per package. D'Agostino said the goal is to make sure all cannabis products are sold in licensed dispensaries, but Connecticut's legal hemp producers say the change will put them out of business.

Becky Goetsch, for example, has a hemp farm and sells boutique CBD products. She said many of the items on her shelves are "full spectrum," containing not enough THC to produce a psychoactive effect but enough to give her products efficacy as treatments for various ailments.

If the bill passes as it's currently written, "to continue selling my products, I will have to return to a time where my products are illegal and I'm selling the illegal goods," said Goetsch, who is also head of the Connecticut Hemp Industry Association. "Full-spectrum hemp products would be nearly impossible to sell with the definition of .5 milligrams of THC being a high-THC hemp product."

Mike Goodenough, a hemp farmer, CBD product producer and co-founder of the Connecticut Cannabis Small Business Alliance, said, "It's ludicrous what they're doing to the CBD farmers and the CBD industry. In fact, it's completely against free trade."

Some producers both in and out of Connecticut have chemically converted legal CBD made from hemp into regulated THC, selling those products on the open market, which Rutigliano said is what the legislature is trying to curb.

"We're not specifically banning the products, we're telling you where it's supposed to be sold, not unlike a package store," he said.

Goetsch has suggested creating a legal ratio of CBD to THC, or an exception for local hemp producers, though D'Agostino said that might conflict with the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

"States are not permitted to favor commerce within their borders, to the discrimination against external commerce," he said. "When the hemp product market was contemplated, it was CBD oils, tinctures, CBD drinks. They wanted to expand it into THC-infused products, ingestible products, gummies, drinks. That's never what anyone in the legislature expected or intended there to be, outside of the regulated cannabis marketplace. And yet, that's what that's what exists."

Partnering with hemp farms in Conn.

There has been a shortage of flower, usable cannabis plant matter, in Connecticut, which officials have said is the result of too few cannabis cultivation facilities.

State law prioritizes cannabis farms in areas of the state considered to be disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs (DIAs), and the proposed measure would seek to correct that in several ways.

"Mostly it's very difficult to find cultivation space in a DIA zone," Goetsch said.

Native American tribal lands would be considered DIAs for the purposes of cannabis cultivation, the deadline for payment of final license fees would be adjusted, and an applicant in a DIA would be able to partner with an existing hemp farm in the state to grow cannabis.

Hemp farms have been unsuccessfully lobbying the state for years to be allowed to grow and sell cannabis, and Rutigliano said this change would give those farms what they've been asking for.

He said it was a "realization that these DIA guys can't do what they want to do and these hemp guys are struggling. Why don't we put them together?"

"We've got to make sure we've got adequate supply in the Connecticut marketplace. We also recognize that we have a number of producer licensees where they just have not been able to get off the ground, because the equity is kind of dried up here," D'Agostino said. "We thought this would be a good way to allow a social equity applicant who has been approved to grow but hasn't been able to find the infrastructure to do that, to partner with an existing hemp farmer who's got the existing infrastructure."

D'Agostino said that the hemp market has become a "parallel market" where customers can "buy products that contain just as much if not more THC than you're getting in our regulated stores."

Hemp farmers, he said, "willingly got into a market that they knew could change, and it changed."

"We're trying to provide alternatives, such as allowing them to get into the recreational marketplace by partnering with growers and using their facilities through our regulated process," D'Agostino said. "But I can tell you, from my point of view, the parallel market is at an end."

Goetsch said she's "not sure how many farmers would be on board giving up ownership, but there's creative ways to make it work."

Goodenough, though, does not believe any provision to allow hemp farmers into the cannabis market will make it into law.

"We have failed every year that we've gone out there and we're doing nothing different this year," he said. "This year, these guys are saying, 'Oh yeah, we're going to let you grow.' You're not going to let us grow. It's just going to be ripped out at the last minute. Trust me."