Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to veto a hemp bill that aims to severely limit the sale of hemp-derived products containing delta-8 THC, delta-9 THC, and delta-10 THC—a bill many say would essentially wipe out the hemp industry.

Florida’s Senate Bill 1698, if signed into law, would restrict the sale of hemp products containing THC, “defining the term “total delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol concentration”; providing conditions for the manufacture, delivery, hold, offer for sale, distribution, or sale of hemp extract; prohibiting businesses and food establishments from possessing hemp extract products that are attractive to children; prohibiting the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services from granting permission to remove or use certain hemp extract products until it determines that such hemp extract products comply with state law, etc.”

CBS News reports that if he vetoes it, DeSantis would be developing a strategy like “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” That’s because the hemp industry is in direct conflict with the cannabis industry as both are sources of THC.

“It’s been flying under the radar, but he’s going to veto,” an unnamed source told CBS News. “The marijuana people are furious, and they are scrambling.”

“There was never a thought the Governor would veto the bill,” said a second source. “But they are now signaling that they are going to veto, and I think it would be fair to say he is leaning toward a veto.”

Supporting the hemp industry would be a strange move, given that DeSantis slammed a constitutional amendment to legalize cannabis in Florida.

DeSantis attacked a bill to legalize adult-use cannabis—Amendment 3—which would legalize cannabis for adults 21 and older and allow individuals to possess up to 3 ounces, and up to 5 grams of concentrate.

“The weed one is not just to decriminalize, it’s basically a license to have it anywhere you want,” he said. “No time, place and manner restrictions. This state will start to smell like marijuana in our cities and counties. It will reduce the quality of life.”

In 2016, Florida voters approved medical cannabis, but patients must be diagnosed by a doctor with a qualifying condition. 

Then the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp and lawmakers accidentally legalized intoxicating compounds like delta-8 THC. The hemp industry has taken off all across the country.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle seem to be in support of the hemp industry as well. Republican Party of Florida chair Evan Power, is spearheading the growth of the hemp industry. 

“I’ve had conversations with staff on the bill,” Power told CBS Miami. “And he is moving toward a decision. And we hope he doesn’t sign it.”

Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried was a big supporter of hemp when she served as the state Agriculture Commissioner. “Expanding access to cannabis is a non-partisan issue with broad support in Florida,” Fried told CBS Miami. “Hemp products provide relief to millions of Floridians—including veterans, seniors, and patients with chronic pain. Any attempts at regulation should protect consumers, while considering the impact on accessibility for patients and the ability of small businesses to compete.”

Support for Adult-Use Cannabis in Florida

Florida’s vast potential for adult-use cannabis has been highly anticipated since the Sunshine State first moved to introduce medical cannabis in 2016. Trulieve contributed more than $40 million to the campaign, alongside an additional several million dollars from a handful of other medical cannabis treatment centers.

In Florida, measures must gain 60% support in order to pass. A new USA Today/Ipsos survey suggests that a majority of registered Florida voters, 56%, support the measure, with 49% of Florida adults overall. Forty percent said that they would vote against it, and just 4% said that they were unsure.

Democrats and independents were most supportive of the measure (69% and 63%, respectively), while 39% of registered Republican voters  said they would vote in favor of the measure. The survey also found that support varied by region, with those in central Florida more likely to say they are in favor of recreational cannabis legalization than those in north or south Florida (54%, 49%, and 38%, respectively).

While there are no differences in self-reported plans to vote for recreational cannabis legalization by gender or age, white Floridians were more likely than Hispanic Floridians to say they would vote in favor of recreational cannabis legalization later this year (55% vs. 32%, respectively).

Other polls were a bit more hopeful: A November 2023 poll from the University of North Florida found that 67% of respondents said they would vote yes on a constitutional amendment to allow adults in Florida to purchase and possess small amounts of cannabis for personal use. It also notes that 70% of respondents supported recreational cannabis in Florida as of Spring 2023 along with 76% showing support in Spring 2022.

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A Florida legislative subcommittee on Monday advanced a bill to restrict psychoactive hemp-derived cannabinoids such as Delta 8 THC and Delta 10. The legislation, House Bill 1613, was advanced by the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee by a vote of 8-4. 

The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp and hemp products at the federal level, leading to a surge in new hemp businesses nationwide. Under the legislation, cannabis with no more than 0.3% Delta 9 THC (the compound largely responsible for the “high” experienced when smoking marijuana) on a dry weight basis is considered legal hemp under federal law.

Legalization Spawns New Hemp Products

The growth of the hemp industry has led to novel new products, including those containing psychoactive cannabinoids such as Delta 8 and Delta 10 THC. Such products are widely available in easily accessible locations including convenience stores, gas stations and smoke shops throughout the country, leading lawmakers in many states to take steps to regulate hemp-derived cannabinoids.

The legislation advanced on Monday would ban Delta 8, Delta 10 and other hemp-derived cannabinoids including hexahydrocannabinol (HHC), tetrahydrocannabinol acetate (THC-O), tetrahydrocannabiphorol (THC-P), and tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCv). 

“This bill is not designed to criminalize behavior,” Republican State Representative Tommy Gregory, the sponsor of the bill, said in a statement about the legislation cited by local media. “This bill is designed to be a consumer protection tool.”

The bill also redefines hemp to “outline that hemp extract may not exceed 0.3% total delta-9-THC concentration on a wet-weight basis or exceed 2 milligrams per serving and 10 milligrams per container on a wet-weight basis,” according to a report from Florida Politics. The new standard is more restrictive than the 2018 Farm Bill and would essentially ban many products available today, including full-spectrum CBD oils.

Jeff Sharkey, a hemp industry advocate, said the bill would help protect consumers from cannabinoids not naturally found in cannabis, which have not been studied for safety as much as Delta 9 THC and CBD.

“This is an attempt by the Legislature to reign in some of the synthetic products that are out there like under the guise of hemp,” said Sharkey.

Bill Has Vocal Opposition

Other proponents of the hemp industry including some lawmakers and small business owners agree that some regulation of hemp products is appropriate. However, they are concerned that HB 1613 is too restrictive and will harm or even destroy Florida’s hemp businesses, many of which are small, locally-owned enterprises. 

At Monday’s subcommittee hearing for HB 1613, Democratic Representative Hillary Cassel said that if the bill is approved by the legislature and signed into law by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, it will destroy Florida’s hemp economy.

“You will go to another state,” she said to those in the hemp industry attending the hearing. “And we will find our consumers and Floridians in a position where they will be buying [hemp products] from the black market, buying it off the internet and having no idea what’s contained within that product.”

Michael Pool, who operates Tampa-based hemp retailer Astrobleme, said that the milligram cap in the bill would not only ban the psychoactive products targeted by the legislation. The bill would also affect many non-psychoactive products that people across Florida now use.

“I have products in over 80 stores across the state,” Pool told Florida Phoenix. “Most of those stores are doing $2,000 a month, $3,000 a month, to $4,000 a month in sales of my products. And to just completely remove that would not be to my detriment, but all those others.”

However, the sponsor of the legislation does not believe that HB 1613 will harm the legal hemp industry. Representative Thad Altman, chair of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee and a fellow Republican, asked Gregory how he thought passage of the bill would impact the state economy. 

“I don’t concede that that actually it’s going to have a negative fiscal impact on businesses or revenue derived from taxes based on those businesses,” Gregory maintained, but did foresee reduced state spending for “providing care for people that overdose when they’re self-medicating using these products that need further regulation.”

Later, Democratic Representative Dianne Hart asked Gregory directly, “Do we think that this may destroy a vital industry in our state?”

“No, I don’t have that concern at all,” Gregory replied. “I don’t think that it’s going to have that impact.”

Glen Sheppard and his wife operate Tallulah, the owner of a chain of smoke shops around Florida. He disputed Gregory’s assertion that the bill would hurt the state’s economy.

“To say that there won’t be any economic impact to the state of Florida, I can tell you that’s totally false,” Sheppard said. “It’s strange that somebody can come stand up here and claim one thing that’s totally, obviously not true at all.”

HB 1613 now heads to the House Infrastructure Strategies Committee. If the legislation is approved there, it will head to the floor for a vote by the full House of Representatives. A companion measure, SB 1698 from Republican Senator Colleen Burton, is expected to receive a vote on the floor of the Florida Senate this week.

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A Maryland judge has temporarily suspended portions of the state’s marijuana legalization statute prohibiting the sale of hemp-derived products with intoxicating cannabinoids. The judge’s order allows hemp and CBD shops to resume selling the products while a lawsuit challenging the state’s cannabis legalization law continues. 

The legal action was filed in July by a group of business owners and the Maryland Hemp Coalition challenging provisions of the state’s marijuana legalization law that only allow businesses approved by state cannabis regulators to sell products that contain THC. The law also restricts sales of other intoxicating cannabinoids derived from hemp, including delta-8 THC and delta-10 THC, which have been sold in Maryland by hemp businesses for years following the legalization of hemp with the 2018 Farm Bill. 

The named defendants in the case are state Governor Wes Moore, the Maryland Cannabis Administration and the Maryland Alcohol, Tobacco, and Cannabis Commission. Attorneys for the defendants have filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit but have not succeeded.

The plaintiffs argue in the suit that the law wrongfully requires them to either obtain a cannabis business license, which is subject to eligibility requirements, stop selling products they have been selling for years, or close their businesses. The plaintiffs allege that the law violates the Maryland Constitution’s equal protection and anti-monopoly clauses by excluding them from the state’s regulated cannabis market. 

Judge’s Order Allows Sales To Resume

In an order handed down on Thursday, Washington County Circuit Court Judge Brett R. Wilson said the restrictions on hemp products with intoxicating hemp products would “irreparably harm” the plaintiffs, some of whom have had to close their businesses selling hemp-derived cannabinoid products. Wilson said his order “is not contrary to the public interest.”

The order allows the plaintiffs to temporarily resume selling products with hemp-derived cannabinoids while the lawsuit continues. After Wilson handed down the order, state officials said it would hurt efforts to make products containing THC, including hemp-derived THC, safe for consumers.

“The Administration was disappointed to learn of the preliminary decision in Washington County Circuit Court allowing for the continued sale of unregulated, untested, and intoxicating hemp-derived products,” William Tilburg, the director of the Maryland Cannabis Administration, said in a statement from the agency.

Leaders in the state legislature also expressed dissatisfaction with the judge’s order and predicted that the lawsuit would not prevail.

“We are disappointed in the Washington County Circuit Court’s initial order regarding Maryland’s landmark recreational adult-use cannabis legislation,” House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson said in a joint statement. “We remain confident that the law is legal.”

Plaintiffs Welcome Court Order

The judge’s order was welcomed by the plaintiffs including business owners who had temporarily closed their shops to comply with Maryland’s cannabis legalization statute.

“We’re happy that, for now, we’re back in business,” said Nevin Young, the plaintiffs’ attorney.

“This is really about the state wanting sole control — through a very limited number of retailers — of the market for all THC products,” he added.

Young said that the plaintiffs had provided evidence in court to show that the products they sell do not pose a risk to consumers, a claim frequently made by the state’s cannabis regulators.

“They brought products to the hearing with them that are tested in independent laboratories that actually exceed the standards that the state of Maryland requires for the products sold in the state,” he said.

“They have basically been shut out. Not because their products are dangerous, but because their products are undesired,” Young added.

Nicholas Patrick, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said that he had to close his three Embrace Wellness Centers because of the restrictions. Together, the three shops were the heart of a business that generated more than $1.5 million per year and employed several workers.

“I was inches away from bankruptcy,” Patrick told the Washington Post on Thursday before a coalition of plaintiffs met to discuss their next steps. “Hopefully, I can get my business up and running and take care of my family.”

Patrick said that revenue at his business declined by 74% after Maryland’s cannabis legalization statute went into effect. He was eventually able to convert one of his locations to a smoke shop, but he has had to permanently close the other two retail operations and he was forced to lay off four employees.

“The human cost for me was the worst cost,” Patrick said. “We had to let them go, and it broke my heart in a million pieces. … I don’t even have the financial means to get them back opened up. I have no money left.”

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While medical and adult-use cannabis remain illegal in Tennessee, it’s pretty easy to find hemp-derived delta-8 THC products that are marketed as psychoactive including vape carts and dabs. But a new bill will regulate delta-8 THC products for adults 21 and over with testing and tax requirements.

State House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) and Sen. Richard Briggs, (R-Knoxville) introduced a bill on Jan. 25 to regulate products containing hemp-derived cannabinoids, such as delta-8 and delta-10 THC, the second time such a bill was introduced.

Gov. Bill Lee (R-Tennessee) signed the bill to regulate delta-8 THC products in a similar manner to cannabis products. Senate Bill 0378 and its companion bill in the lower chamber House Bill 0403 will implement a tax and regulate cannabinoids derived from hemp via what some describe as synthetic processes. 

The bill will ensure that delta-8 THC products and other hemp-derived products are inspected by the Department of Agriculture.

While in the wild, cannabis has trace levels of delta-8 THC, in order to get high from the compound, “high levels of delta-8 THC are produced artificially by chemically converting CBD or delta-9 THC through a process known as isomerization,” NORML’s Dale Gieringer explains. 

Often the concern is potentially dangerous residuals that could be avoided if the products are regulated in a similar manner as products made with cannabis-derived cannabinoids.

“Delta-8’s been completely unregulated up to this point, and what the bill is trying to do is trying to assure the public and the consumer that the product they’re buying is what it says it is, that it doesn’t have contaminants,” Sen. Briggs said. “We’re not going to sell it to people under 21 years of age.”

“We started off to where we have one side that says, ‘Let’s do nothing.’ You have the other side that says to ban it,” Sen. Briggs said. “By working together, we were able to meet in the middle.”

Brigg’s co-sponsor simply wanted delta-8 THC products to be out of reach for minors.

“Delta-8 is a legal substance that can be sold and packaged in the form of candy or gummies; it often has a very high concentration of THC,” Rep. Lamberth stated. “There are no regulations and no legitimate way for anyone to know exactly what they are buying. Nothing in our current law prohibits a child from purchasing delta-8.”

New Rules for Hemp-Derived Cannabinoids in Tennessee

The bill will ban the sale of hemp-derived cannabinoid products to people under the age of 21; add a 5% additional sales tax to any product sold at a store; and create a licensing, quality testing, regulatory, and enforcement process through the Tennessee Department of Agriculture.

The bill will establish regulations to ensure inspection and packaging requirements. Companies will be subject to testing from a third-party lab and be required to put their product in child-resistant packaging.

“Basic food-grade things,” Devin Aracena, co-founder and CEO of CANVAST Supply Co., told WKRN. “The same standard you would want to see your packaged food in a grocery store be held to, we’re going to hold these products to it, as well.”

Some hemp sellers in the state support the new law.

Aracena joined forces with Cultivate Tennessee, a coalition of cannabis and hemp-promoting businesses and professionals, to help draft the legislation.

Tennessee House Rep. G.A. Hardaway is a sponsor of the bill on the House side, and told ABC 24 that this is what hemp companies need to do if they want to be taken seriously.

“This gives us a chance to take a serious approach to hemp and CBD oil, and in doing so, to kind of get our foot in the door to start a real discussion—[an] intelligent discussion—about marijuana,” Hardaway said.

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One Arkansas lawmaker wants to ban the hemp products that have taken over shelves at gas stations and convenience stores.

Republican state Sen. Tyler Dees introduced a bill last week that would ban the likes of Delta-8, Delta-9 and Delta-10 –– legal, but under-regulated compounds that have been known to produce a high similar to that of cannabis. 

“It’s because of an accessibility issue where you can walk into a regular gas station and purchase this product as if you’re purchasing Skittles or any other candy,” Dees told local news station THV11.

Hemp-derived products have become ubiquitous in recent years, particularly following Congress’ passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized industrial hemp production.

But critics have lamented that many of those hemp products are subject to little, if any, regulation, posing risks to consumers who believe what they’re consuming to be mostly harmless.

Dees claimed to the station that poison control “is being contacted of cases where kids are, are digesting products that are causing harm to them.”

THV11 followed up with the state’s poison control, which “said that while there are no specific numbers when it comes to Delta 8 because the data didn’t start being collected until January 2021, they have been seeing an increase in kids being exposed to THC products.”

“Any THC-containing product is potentially harmful. Whether or not it’s Delta 8 or Delta 9,” Ari Filip, the medical director for Arkansas Poison Control Center, told the station. “We worry about this having psychoactive effects so it should be kept away, locked inaccessible to children.”

Arkansas voters rejected a proposal at the ballot last November that would have legalized recreational cannabis in the state.

The state’s Republican governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was elected in the November election, voted against the proposal.

“I don’t think that with the drug epidemic that we have across this state, frankly across the country, that adding and giving more access to that does anything to benefit Arkansas, so I certainly wouldn’t be supportive of that,” Huckabee Sanders, a former press secretary for Donald Trump, said in October. 

Her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, has also spoken ill of the cannabis industry.

In a video last fall urging voters to reject the legalization measure, Huckabee said that “you aren’t the one who is going to be making the money, drug cartels will.”

“And if you are one of those people that can sell the drug, maybe you’ll make a buck off of the gullible people who will somehow convince themselves this is absolutely harmless,” the former governor added.

Medical cannabis is legal in Arkansas, however, and a co-sponsor of the bill to ban Delta-8 and other hemp products, state Sen. Jonathan Dismang, insisted that the measure would not affect that program.

“I mean, you have to have your card and there are benefits that are, you know, for those patients, this isn’t about that,” Dismang told THV11. “I mean, a high school kid right now can go purchase. Again, I think that’s wrong.”

Arkansas legalized medical cannabis in 2016, when a majority of voters approved an amendment authorizing the treatment. 

Per the state’s Department of Health, patients with the following conditions may qualify for a medical cannabis prescription: “Cancer; Glaucoma; Positive status for human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome; Hepatitis C; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Tourette’s syndrome; Crohn’s disease; Ulcerative colitis; Post-traumatic stress disorder; Severe arthritis; Fibromyalgia; Alzheimer’s disease; Cachexia or wasting syndrome; Peripheral neuropathy; Intractable pain which is pain that has not responded to ordinary medications, treatment, or surgical measures for more than six (6) months; Severe nausea; Seizures including without limitation those characteristic of epilepsy; Severe and persistent muscle spasms including without limitation those characteristic of multiple sclerosis; and any other medical condition or its treatment approved by the Department of Health.”

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Tennessee leaders are again putting forth a bill that would regulate hemp-derived cannabinoids like delta-8 and delta-10 THC, after a previous attempt failed last year. Some hemp advocates applauded the bill, while others would rather simply legalize cannabis, naturally rich in delta-9 THC.

State House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) and Sen. Richard Briggs, (R-Knoxville) introduced a bill on Tuesday to regulate products containing hemp-derived cannabinoids, such as delta-8 and delta-10 THC—his second attempt to do so.

House Bill 403 would tax and regulate cannabinoids derived from hemp via what some describe as synthetic processes. Typically products with delta-8 THC are marketed as being somewhat psychoactive, with effects weaker but similar to delta-9 THC.

“Delta-8 is a legal substance that can be sold and packaged in the form of candy or gummies; it often has a very high concentration of THC,” Rep. Lamberth stated. “There are no regulations and no legitimate way for anyone to know exactly what they are buying. Nothing in our current law prohibits a child from purchasing delta-8.”

The bill would ban the sale of hemp-derived cannabinoid products to people under the age of 21; adds a 5% additional sales tax to any product sold at a store; and create a licensing, quality testing, regulatory and enforcement process through the Tennessee Department of Agriculture.

“We need to regulate this because the horse is out of the barn,” Sen. Briggs said. “This stuff is everywhere, and we can’t put that genie back in the bottle.”

What is Delta-8 THC?

The idea is that hemp-derived CBD can be converted to other compounds, frequently being marketed as psychoactive. This doesn’t mesh with the general U.S. definition of hemp, bred specifically to not be psychoactive.

Delta-8 THC occurs naturally, but only in trace amounts: According to Chemical & Engineering News, cannabis plants naturally contain just 0.1% delta-8 THC or less—though some plants contain as much as 1%. Jeffrey Raber, cofounder and CEO of the Werc Shop told C&E News that there isn’t enough delta-8 THC found naturally in hemp to be economical for extraction.

But hemp growers in the state are supportive of the bill despite some suspicion about emerging hemp-derived cannabinoids. “We support anything that doesn’t put burdensome regulations on the industry,” Kelley Hess, executive director of the Tennessee Growers Coalition, said.

While hemp growers may support delta-8 products, others do not.

Artists such as Margo Price support legalization, but don’t support hemp-derived cannabinoid products in Tennessee. Opponents don’t like the way certain cannabinoids are extracted from hemp, which usually means altering the CBD molecule, which is found in hemp in larger amounts, using natural solvents and acids.

Attempt to Regulate Delta-8 Last Year

While some states moved to restrict hemp-derived cannabinoids, such as Utah, Tennessee would be taking a much different approach by regulating it instead.

Rep. Lamberth sponsored an earlier attempt to regulate delta-8 THC and similar compounds. Some Tennessee lawmakers and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said that by regulating delta-8, the state would be legitimizing the industry. 

House Bill 1927, which was introduced previously, would regulate delta-8 by making it illegal in most cases outside trace-level concentrations. The bill was amended in April 2022 to be more specific to include other hemp-derived THCs such as delta-9 and 10 and the derivative hexahydrocannabinol (HHC), but exclude non-THC hemp cannabinoids such as CBD.

Tennessee is one of 11 non-green states that hasn’t legalized, regulated, or decriminalized cannabis in some form. 

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Unclear which hemp-derived cannabinoids like delta-8, delta-10, or HHC will flag a drug test? Never fear, you’ve come to the right place.

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Looking for the latest in the world of recreational hemp cannabinoids? Binoid is a simple online source stocked with the good stuff.

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What a time to be alive.

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All your questions on hemp cannabinoids, answered, plus huge deals up to 30% off and hot products from top brands.

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