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Sept. 9, 2024 |  By: Rebecca Rivas - Missouri Independent

Missouri regulators visit nearly 50 stores to inspect for intoxicating hemp edibles

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By Rebecca Rivas - Missouri Independent

State health regulators walked into the busy Prime Fuel gas station in Sedalia on Tuesday morning and asked the clerk if there were any intoxicating hemp-derived THC edibles in the store — products the governor banned as of Sept. 1.

The two employees of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services learned the store had already taken the products off the shelves, according to the regulators’ report on the visit, and they were being stored in a box in the office.

The report says regulators called the owner and he voluntarily agreed to destroy the products. 

But that’s not how the owner describes the incident, said Craig Katz, spokesman for the Missouri Hemp Trade Association. 

“He seemed to be forced into it,” Katz said. 

Katz said the owner had boxed up the products so he could return them to the wholesaler for a refund, and he explained this to the regulators. Instead, they told him his manager had to pour bleach over about $5,000 worth of product, Katz said, a process that took two hours.

On Wednesday, the Missouri Hemp Trade Association’s attorney Chuck Hatfield sent a letter to the department’s general counsel saying the regulators deprived the owner of his right to tell his side of the story to a judge.

“The law is extremely clear that DHSS is not authorized to destroy product, or to demand that others do so, without a court order,” Hatfield wrote. 

State regulators have visited 44 establishments as of 4 p.m. Thursday to inspect for the banned products, said Lisa Cox, spokesperson for the department. 

Of the 44 facilities, regulators found “unregulated psychoactive cannabis products” during inspections at 23 of them, Cox said. 

“Four facilities have refused to embargo or discard products,” she said. “The remaining facilities agreed to embargo and/or discard products. At this time, we have taken no court action.” 

Cox declined comment on Hatfield’s letter.

The association says it has heard of three reports of “raids” by state health regulators on stores selling intoxicating hemp products, mainly edibles. Regulators asked owners or clerks to sign a document stating they agree with the destruction of the products, Katz said.

“I can only describe what is happening to small business owners in Missouri as disturbing,” Katz said.

The association filed a lawsuit on Aug. 30 in Cole County Circuit Court to stop the governor’s ban on all intoxicating hemp food and drinks from taking effect Sunday. The association argues the products are legal and state law prohibits regulators from deeming them as “adulterated.”

On Aug. 1, Gov. Mike Parson signed an executive order to remove all hemp-derived THC edibles and beverages from store shelves and threatening penalties to any establishment that continues selling them.

Because hemp isn’t a controlled substance like marijuana, there’s no state or federal law saying teenagers or children can’t buy products, such as delta-8 drinks, or that stores can’t sell them to minors, Parson said. 

And there’s no requirement to list potential effects on the label or test how much THC is actually in them. Hemp industry leaders themselves have pushed for such regulations, but state lawmakers have failed to pass proposals the last two years.

Parson said the main target of his order are companies that sell intoxicating hemp edibles that mimic popular candy. However, 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.

The order directs regulators “to identify food that contains unregulated psychoactive cannabis products as deleterious, poisonous and adulterated.” 

The department has the authority to do this, Parson’s order states, because of a state law regarding the process to deem a food product adulterated.

However, Hatfield notes the same law also states that, “a food shall not be considered adulterated solely for containing industrial hemp, or an industrial hemp commodity or product.”

That line was added to Missouri’s law in 2018, after Congress legalized hemp as part of the federal Farm Bill. It was part of a Missouri House bill that brought the state’s definition of hemp in alignment with the federal government’s. 

There has been no movement on the lawsuit since the association filed it last week.