Not long after Commander Jason Stanfield had lowered the flag Tuesday to honor the lives lost on Sept. 11 at his Franklin County VFW Post, he learned state food inspectors had arrived. 

“It’s not an easy day,” Stanfield said. “9/11 is a tough day for all of us, particularly for veterans. I was not in the best mindset.”

The regulators said they had received a complaint that the post’s bar had been selling seltzers that contain hemp-derived THC — which has the same intoxicating effect as THC from marijuana that’s sold at dispensaries. 

The bar was selling a brand of fruity seltzers called UR Lit, which contains 5mg of Delta-9 THC.

While hemp is federally legal, Missouri recently joined a growing number of states trying to ban all intoxicating hemp products.

When Gov. Mike Parson signed his executive order on Aug. 1 to ban the products, he said his primary focus was to protect children consuming the products that resemble popular candy, like Lifesavers, or fruity drinks.

Given the governor’s goal, Stanfield said he was surprised the state wanted to inspect the post, where members are well over 21.

“There’s not a whole lot of kids that run around the VFW,” he said. 

Since the ban went into effect on Sept. 1, Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services officials have inspected 74 establishments and found intoxicating products at 42 of them, said Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the department. 

On a social media post on Wednesday, Stanfield described the inspection as a “raid,” but Cox said that description is “misleading” because there were just two inspectors responding to a complaint. 

“The two inspectors were let inside through a locked door upon request,” Cox said, “but quickly recognized that the VFW Post did not pose an immediate cause for concern, specifically in regard to Missouri children. As a result, zero product was embargoed or destroyed.”

Cox said the department has “no plans in place of returning to the establishment.”

Hemp and marijuana are essentially terms the government uses to distinguish between the part of the cannabis plant that can get you high when smoked – that’s marijuana – and the part that can’t — that’s hemp. 

But with a little science and extraction, people can enhance the small amount of the naturally occurring THC, or the psychoactive component, in hemp to make edibles and drinks. 

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. State lawmakers have failed to pass such requirements the last two years.

Stanfield said the state ban is harmful for VFW members who are trying to recover from alcoholism or opioid addiction. 

“I have testimony after testimony in my post alone of people that are still alive today,” Stanfield said, “because they use cannabis to get off of their opioids that they were addicted to.”

During the inspection, he said the DHSS employees told him that the drinks were considered “adulterated.” If a product is considered adulterated, DHSS has the authority to embargo it – which means put a tag on it until the department gets a court order to destroy it. 

Stanfield points to the state law that says, “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.

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

“I will continue to comply with federal law and sell these products until they’re not legal,” Stanfield said, “to give my veterans a non-alcoholic option in a place where they can come and be with other veterans and not have to consume alcohol.”

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (WGEM) – Being a first responder is often a thankless job. But on Thursday, Missouri honored some of its bravest who went the extra mile when it counted most.

On Thursday, the Missouri Department of Public Safety and Gov. Mike Parson honored 28 first responders — two posthumously — and three everyday Missourians who helped save lives in 2023. The Medal of Valor, Governor’s Award and Red, White and Blue Award are some of the highest honors a first responder can receive in Missouri.

At only 11 years old, Louis Miklovic received the Public Safety Civilian Partnership Award for helping park rangers save his dad and younger brother, who had fallen off a bluff in Washington State Park. Both his father and brother are recovering well.

Another civilian award went to Destiny Brant. The recent college graduate swam through floodwaters to pull two children from a car that was stuck in a ditch. Everyone in the car recovered with only minor injuries.

“I think I was really caught up in the moment,” Brant said. “I don’t know, I just, I knew that they needed help and so, I just helped.”

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Missouri is receiving more than $1.7 billion in federal funding to expand broadband connectivity. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration approved Missouri’s proposal for the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (or BEAD) Program.

The BEAD Program aims to provide, or improve, access to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet to unserved and underserved parts of the state.

BJ Tanksley with the state Office of Broadband Development said that Missouri’s federal funding is the third largest allocation in the U.S.

“It was California, Texas, and then Missouri,” Tanksley said. “You know, it’s really an indication of, you know, the great need across the state of Missouri. There’s a lot of locations out there that, today, don’t have service, and we’re really excited about the opportunity to help bring that, working with willing providers, of course.”

He said that there are large spaces along Missouri’s southern border with Arkansas with no service, including Texas County.

“This is the amount of funding you have. And let’s remember, it’s historic amount of funding. But your job, mine and our offices, is to get service to everyone,” he explained. “So that really turns it on its head. But those are the two scenarios we see – areas where it’s kind of sparce between areas and then others where it’s more vast, where there’s, you know, an entire geography that doesn’t have service.”

Tanksley has identified more than 200,000 locations in Missouri that were determined to be eligible for BEAD funding.

“It means over the next year, we will be selecting the providers to actually go out and do the work,” he said. “Us making the funding available for them to be able to reach these hard-to-reach areas and really, truly, changing, you know, that availability.”

The BEAD program aims to provide, or improve, access to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet to unserved and underserved parts of the state