Missouri hemp industry stuck in confusion as Gov. Mike Parson's THC ban gets delayed

When Missouri Gov. Mike Parson issued an executive order banning the sale of psychoactive hemp-derived edibles outside of marijuana dispensaries, he said manufacturers are endangering children with deceptive packaging and unregulated substances.

But he didn’t mention the effect the ban would have on Missouri hemp producers, who say they’re trying to run a legitimate business and feel burned by the governor.

Even after Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft blocked the emergency order, delaying the ban by at least six months, local hemp sellers feel attacked by the looming threat to their businesses.

“We’re in limbo,” said Brian Riegel, owner of South Point Hemp in Union, Missouri. “Bankers are calling asking what’s going on, what’s going to happen, how we’re going to cover the bills. I don’t have those answers.”

Hemp-derived compounds rose to prominence following the 2018 Farm Bill.

Before 2018, the cannabis plant was basically illegal to grow in any form. The bill opened the door to growing it by classifying cannabis with less than .3% delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, as hemp and cannabis with any more as marijuana.

This allowed farmers to grow hemp to use as fiber and grain. But it also opened the door for two types of hemp-derived psychoactive products to hit the market.

The first is any product that has low amounts of delta-9. For example, if an edible weighs a total of 10 grams, it could have up to 30 milligrams of delta-9. Riegel sells a line of drinks with 5 milligrams of delta-9 at bars and concerts.

“When we’re talking about a beverage like this, this is .0005% [THC concentration],” he said. “It’s way low because of the volume.”

Though the governor’s order didn’t explicitly ban products with hemp-derived delta-9, a spokesperson with the Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services confirmed to KBIA via email that they are illegal as well.

The other types are other psychoactive chemical compounds found in cannabis, such as delta-8 and delta-10. While some of these appear in faint amounts in cannabis, they are most often made by chemically converting compounds like CBD, which is naturally plentiful in cannabis.

Hemp producers and advocates say because these compounds aren’t delta-9 specifically, it’s legal hemp instead of illegal marijuana.

“I think the law means what it says,” said Dan Viets, a Columbia lawyer who chairs the Board of Directors of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. “And the people who are manufacturing intoxicating products from hemp are doing what was or should have been foreseeable. I’m not sure if anyone foresaw it or not, but that they are abiding by the law as it now stands.”

Others disagree. Eric Leas is an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego. He studies cannabis and works with officials to draft regulations. Leas is in favor of closing what he calls the “hemp loophole.”

“I wasn’t in the room when they were writing the law, but to me, and lots of states are deciding, the intent of this was for industrial uses and not a work-around to get psychoactive cannabis products to consumers,” Leas said. “So that’s kind of what I see as the loophole.”

Leas is in favor of a total ban on psychoactive hemp-derived compounds, especially in places with a legal market for marijuana, a drug he says has much more research indicating it’s safe.

“There’s all sorts of consumer safety checks that happen in a recreational use system,” he said. “The thing that the industry doesn’t like is it makes it more expensive, and you have to submit your products to this system. But to me, as a public health researcher, with a really potent substance, it seems worth the additional costs to ensure safety for the products in a way that we can’t do for the hemp-derived market.”

The Missouri Hemp Trade Association says they have been calling for regulations for years to no avail, which is partly why Parson’s outright ban was such a shock.

“I think it’s important that we do age restrictions on the purchase of it, 21 and over,” Riegel said. “Make sure the labels are right, make sure there’s testing on it.”

Missouri Hemp Trade Association Executive Director Courtney Allen Curtis said that despite legislation failing to pass, the state’s hemp industry has been self-regulating.

“If it’s a Missouri Hemp Trade member company that’s making these products, you won’t find that they are labeled as marijuana, and you will find that they are tested,” he said. “They are properly labeled. And then they have the certificate of analysis that shows you that they are tested, and it shows what ingredients and other things are in it, and that they have been tested for things such as heavy metals, and they pass those tests.”

Those in the Missouri hemp industry say they feel lumped together with the out-of-state and overseas manufacturers that don’t abide by the same rules, and the executive order wouldn’t do much to stop them anyway.

“They can’t stop the online ordering of it, and they’re not making it illegal to possess,” Riegel said. “So it’s the actual selling of it. If you’re a merchant in the state, that’s the person who becomes a criminal in this act.”

Riegel said if the ban goes through, he’s considering moving his business out of state and selling his products online.

Earlier this month, Columbia hemp boutique Hemp Hemp Hooray closed its doors after five years in business. Owner Kevin Halderman said about 50% of the products he sells would be impacted by the ban, and he made the decision to close on the same day it was announced.

“It was definitely the nail that sealed the deal,” he said.

 After Ashcroft blocked the emergency order, the ban is now expected to take at least six months to come to fruition.

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