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Sept. 19, 2024 |  By: Rebecca Rivas - Missouri Independent

‘Hemp sales are back on’: Missouri regulators pare down ban on intoxicating hemp products

hemp

By Rebecca Rivas - Missouri Independent

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s ban on intoxicating hemp products hit another hurdle on Tuesday, resulting in an indefinite pause on a huge part of the effort.

Richard Moore, general counsel for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, said in a letter Tuesday that the state’s health regulators will stop embargoing — or tagging — products simply because they contain hemp-derived THC. 

“In regard to psychoactive cannabis products, the department will focus its efforts on the identification of  ‘misbranded’ products,’” Moore wrote to the Missouri Hemp Trade Association’s attorney, Chuck Hatfield.   

When Parson signed his executive order on Aug. 1, he said his primary focus was to protect children consuming the products that resemble popular candy, like Lifesavers, but contain the intoxicating compound of the cannabis plant, THC.

“I trust that you understand that the consumption of these products may be dangerous,” Moore states, “and that under no circumstances should they end up in the hands of Missouri’s children.”

The department’s effort will now focus on just that — not banning all intoxicating hemp products.

“If the department identifies any such misbranded products, it will refer those products to the Missouri Attorney General’s Office for  potential enforcement under the State’s Merchandising Practices Act…”

The letter comes after the Missouri Hemp Trade Association filed for a temporary restraining order against the department on Monday in response to the department inspecting a VFW post on Sept. 11, Hatfield said. 

“We asked for the (temporary restraining order),” Hatfield said, “and in response, we got this letter, which is the same thing we would have accomplished with the (temporary restraining order.”

The motion for the restraining order states that the governor’s order directs the department to “designate foods adulterated simply because they contain hemp products, in direct contravention of Missouri law.” 

In Moore’s letter, he acknowledges that state law says, “a food shall not be considered adulterated solely for containing industrial hemp, or an industrial hemp commodity or product.”

It is the same law fueling the Missouri Hemp Trade Association’s lawsuit against the governor’s ban. 

As of Sept. 12, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services officials have inspected 74 establishments this month and found intoxicating products at 42 of them, said Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the department.

During the visits, inspectors have asked the store owners to destroy the products within the facilities. If they don’t, inspectors tag them as embargoed.

According to Moore’s letter, all psychoactive cannabis products that the department has tagged as an embargoed product will be referred to the attorney general’s office for evaluation of misbranding violations. 

“The department has no intention at this time to embargo additional psychoactive cannabis products as adulterated,” the letter states. “Further, within 30 days after referral to the attorney general’s office, the department will release all currently embargoed products and remove all embargo tags.”

Once embargo tags are removed, it states, such products will not be subject to an embargo as long as there is no court order prohibiting its sale or ordering its destruction. 

“Pending further action from the General Assembly as to intoxicating cannabis products,” the letter states, “the department believes that channeling  future enforcement authority via the Merchandising Practices Act is the best way to ensure that Missouri consumers know what they are purchasing and ingesting, and to keep harmful products out of the hands  of children.” 

Missouri Hemp Trade Association spokesperson Craig Katz said the association supports the attorney general’s efforts “to prosecute bad actors marketing counterfeit and misbranded hemp products to children.”

“This is the appropriate regulatory and law enforcement focus,” Katz said. “We hope to follow this with a strong legislative effort in 2025 to further assure consumers and other stakeholders that hemp products are safe, tightly regulated, and available to ensure public safety.”

There are about 9,000 retailers statewide currently selling hemp-derived beverages and edibles. Hemp industry leaders argue the order also bans products that aren’t attractive to children, have gone through lab testing and are only sold to customers 21 and up.

Hatfield said the association never believed stores should stop selling intoxicating hemp products that don’t market to children. But the department’s Tuesday letter gives the green light to begin sales again, he said.

“In light of yesterday’s letter,” Hatfield said, “hemp sales are back on.”