Intoxicating Hemp Booming in Missouri The War Rages On!
Vaillencourt said this market has eclipsed the state-regulated marijuana industry in size in some parts of the country.
“That’s significant because that marketplace didn’t exist several years ago,” he said.
While Delta-8 edibles or seltzers are the most recognizable products in the intoxicating hemp industry, the products are rapidly evolving — making it challenging for regulators to keep up.
“From a health community standpoint, we are very concerned with brand new compounds coming out of these processes that we’ve never seen before,” said Amy Moore, director of the Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation during one of the panel discussions at the conference. “We really have no idea what they do, either from experimentation or study.”
For Moore, it’s even more concerning that these compounds are being made “in large amounts, and just see what happens.”
This year, Missouri lawmakers attempted to address the issue, first with failed legislation and later with a stalled-out executive order issued by Gov. Mike Parson trying to ban the products.
For the third year, the upcoming legislative session will be the battlefield between the hemp and marijuana industries. Both will be pushing for their own proposals of sensible regulations.
This “civil war” between the two industries is happening all over the country, said cannabis attorney Rod Kight, who has represented hemp businesses in lawsuits nationwide.
“Which one is going to win out,” he asked, “or what is the end result here?”
On one hand, marijuana companies say it’s unfair that they “played by the rules,” Kight said, and now have to compete with purported hemp products available at gas stations.
On the other side, hemp industry leaders say what they’re doing is legal under federal and state law.
“There’s all these different things that people have in their minds about what it means to have legal hemp,” Kight said. “But the reality of the situation is, for all practical purposes, cannabis is legal in the United States. We just call it hemp.”
https://missouriindependent.com/2024/11/15/intoxicating-hemp-booming-in-missouri-as-regulators-marijuana-industry-try-to-shut-it-down/