Florida
Florida lawmakers move again to ban delta-8, restrict hemp marketplace
TALLAHASSEE — Less than a year after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed legislation that would overhaul Florida’s hemp marketplace, Florida senators are trying again.
On Monday, a bill that would reform the hemp marketplace moved through its first committee meeting in the Senate. The House hasn’t heard any companion legislation yet.
Some of the ideas in the package senators moved forward are the same as what was in the bill that DeSantis vetoed last year. Others are new.
When DeSantis vetoed last year‘s bill, he said it would impose too harsh a burden on small businesses.
But the sponsor of both this year’s legislation and the vetoed bill said lawmakers also need to weigh concerns about the health and safety of hemp products.
Here’s what to know about what the proposal, SB 438, would mean for hemp businesses and users.
Banning delta-8
Many of the products currently lining smoke shops around the state would become illegal under Sen. Colleen Burton’s proposed bill, including any delta-8 products.
The cannabis plant contains more than 100 cannabinoids. Delta-9 is what users typically think of as THC, and is a compound that creates a high sensation.
While delta-8 can also create a psychoactive effect, it is thought to be less potent and occurs in lower quantities naturally than delta-9. But producers can use a chemical process to convert other cannabinoids into delta-8, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
The bill would change the definition of hemp extract to prohibit it from containing “any quantity of synthetic cannabinoids.” It would also ban delta-8, delta-10, HHC, THC-O-Acetate, THCP and THCV.
Last year, a similar ban was in the bill DeSantis vetoed. Opponents said the ban could affect products with trace amounts of those cannabinoids that aren’t meant to create a “high” sensation, like certain CBD tinctures.
Remaining legal products under the bill would be capped at 5 milligrams of delta-9 THC per serving or 50 milligrams per container.
Requiring alcohol licenses
Under the bill, canned beverages that contain THC could only be sold at shops with a license to sell alcohol.
It would also require a cap on the strength of THC drinks, limiting them to 5 milligrams per unopened can. The bill would also prohibit alcohol from being included in a beverage with THC.
According to a Harvard Medical School blog, the cannabinoids found in beverages are designed to dissolve easily in liquids – which means they lead to a quicker effect as they are absorbed in the body.
Michael and Caitlyn Smith, owners of the St. Petersburg-based non-alcoholic bottle shop Herban Flow, opposed the beverage requirements.
Both said requiring their store, which centers around not selling alcoholic beverages, to have a license for alcohol doesn’t make sense.
Michael Smith said he’s in favor of going after delta-8 and synthetic cannabinoids, which he said is what lawmakers are really seeking.
“They’re trying to take a bill to shut down the smoke shops, and they’re sweeping us along inside of it when our mission is different,” Michael Smith said. “We’re trying to provide an alternative to people looking to stay away from alcohol.”
Limiting hemp shop advertising, locations
If passed, the bill could mean no more strip malls filled with back-to-back smoke shops.
The legislation would limit where a store selling hemp could set up. It would ban a shop selling hemp from setting up within 500 feet of a school or daycare, a gas station or another retail shop with a permit to sell hemp.
When DeSantis suggested how the Legislature could reform the hemp marketplace in his veto letter of last year’s bill, he said lawmakers should “consider measures to prevent the ubiquity and concentration of these retail locations in communities across the State.”
The bill would also restrict what hemp shops look like to visitors. Current shops can have products that are easily accessible. The proposal would require that all hemp products, aside from beverages, be kept out of reach in either a locked display or in an area accessible to only employees.
Advertising would also significantly change. Businesses would no longer be able to advertise using the words “THC,” “medical card” or any other similar term.
Businesses would also no longer be able to advertise in a way that’s visible to members of the public from the sidewalk or street, which would make hemp shops operate like medical marijuana facilities.
Testing regulations
Hemp in Florida would be tested in the same labs where medical marijuana is tested under the bill, and two lab employees would need to verify it meets potency requirements and is free from contaminants.
The bill would also create an avenue for state officials to randomly test products from the shelves of hemp shops.
If a tested product fails, it would need to be recalled.
A Times/Herald analysis showed that many hemp products have a THC level high enough to classify as marijuana, and some contained contaminants unsafe for human consumption.
Burton said testing would make sure that “products are indeed hemp products and not marijuana products dressed in hemp clothing.”
Florida
‘Living and working in Florida is like being in a toxic relationship,’ but the Northeast shows jarring differences, real estate founder says | Fortune
In a candid interview, top real estate agent and founder of SYKES Properties, Erin Sykes, got real about the state of the Florida real estate market. “Living and working in Florida is like being in a toxic relationship,” she said at the ResiDay conference in an interview with ResiClub editor Meghan Malas.
Now, Skykes, whose firm showcases multimillion-dollar deals in both Florida and the Northeast, said she’s watching two Americas diverge in real time. In the Northeast, she’s seeing bidding wars have returned in commuter suburbs like Monmouth County, N.J., and mid-Long Island, where buyers still fight for an acre and an elite school district. In Florida, by contrast, she described a market in withdrawal, nursing a hangover after a flurry of activity. “Just a couple years ago, we were being love-bombed and told how great we were,” she said, citing Florida’s burgeoning status as “Wall Street South,” a new finance hub. Now, things are “flat” or even heading downward.
Home prices in Florida have fallen 5.4% year-over-year, dragged down by a glut of aging condos facing six-figure special assessments and post-Surfside safety mandates. Single-family homes, meanwhile, remain relatively resilient, she noted. She characterized the Sunshine State’s housing scene as a cycle of boom, bust, and burnout. She’s always fueled by the belief that somehow, the next round will be different.
“Now we’re being told, ‘Oh, you’re too expensive,’ and kind of being discarded,” Sykes said. “You know, the conversation changes by the day, really.”
Noting that Florida has always been a boom-or-bust state, she said she sees signs of moderation rather than collapse. “Rather than being the boom up here and the bust way down here like we saw in 2008 and 2009, the waves are becoming flatter,” she said. While there may be a pullback in prices, “really, a 5% pullback is nothing when your house has appreciated 25%.”
For Florida, Sykes argued, even a flat market signals stability after years of breakneck appreciation—especially in Palm Beach, where home values have jumped as much as 200% in the past few years.
The challenge of dual market personalities
Sykes described jarring regional differences. In Florida as an agent, you’re “just trying to really push and pull and drag deals together, you’re getting discounts of 5%, 10%, 20% off list price,” but then in the Northeast you find yourself going into a bidding war. “It’s like having a multiple personality disorder.”
That volatility, she noted, reflects a broader split between regions that overheated during the pandemic and those returning to normal. The migration wave that sent high earners south may have turbocharged Florida’s boom but also exposed its fragility. Now, Sykes said, agents and homeowners alike are navigating two competing realities: the Northeast’s cautious recovery and the Southeast’s cooling after years of mania.
She also outlined a bifurcation within the Florida housing market: while single-family homes remain robust thanks to demand for space among incoming families, condos face mounting challenges. That’s difficult because they are “really what has been driving down the Florida market,” and they are facing new challenges from special assessments, strengthened structural regulations, and fallout from incidents like the Surfside collapse. Pre-selling of new-construction condos continues apace, she said, with West Palm Beach alone seeing many significant developments underway.
Sykes described a bifurcation between single-family homes and condos in Florida, since its exploding population is full of people who left Manhattan or Chicago and “wanted their own space.” She said single-family homes are doing well, and then “We’re seeing condos bifurcated, and then within that bifurcation of condos, a secondary bifurcation.”
“Florida,” she concluded, “you have to always take with a grain of salt.”
The Florida Gators coaching search could take a wild turn in November.
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The Gators fired head coach Billy Napier on Oct. 19 after starting the season 3-4. Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin appears to be the top candidate for Florida, but it’s unclear if Kiffin has any intentions of leaving the Rebels amid a No. 6 spot in the first College Football Playoff ranking.
On Wednesday, Josh Pate set off a firestorm of speculation about USC head coach Lincoln Riley. During Wednesday’s episode of “Bussin With The Boys” podcast, Pate suggested Riley could be on the move.
“Let’s just keep an eye on Lincoln Riley at USC,” Pate said.
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Keith Niebuhr of On3 invited more speculation on Riley’s future with the Trojans. He put Riley on the hot board of candidates for the Gators.
Niebuhr reported that there isn’t “much chatter” about Riley and Florida (implying that there is some), but that more smoke about the USC head coach is likely to come.
“Because things look wide open (at least on the surface) after Kiffin, it’s worth adding Riley’s name to this list even though there has not yet been much chatter about him and the Gators,” Niebuhr wrote. “There has been some chatter, though unverified, that Riley might be interested in working back in his home state of Texas.
“It’s not yet known on our part if UF has any interest.”
Riley would not owe USC any money if he wanted a fresh start with a new program before his 10-year, $110 million contract is up at the end of the 2031 season.
Riley is 32-16 during his four seasons with the Trojans. Southern Cal is 6-2 this season before playing at home on Saturday against Northwestern.
Riley has not been able to replicate the same success at USC that he had at Oklahoma, when he went 55-10 in five seasons and won four Big 12 championships and made three CFP appearances.
Riley could figure he has a better chance of returning to the CFP with Florida than staying the course at USC.
For more on the NCAA, head to Newsweek Sports.
High school football playoff brackets were revealed Thursday, and more than 40 high schools across Central Florida have a shot at a state title. Games start next Friday night, Nov. 14.
DeLand (7A), Edgewater (5A), Jones (4A), and Bishop Moore (3A) earned No. 1 seeds in the respective classes.
Class 1A will be decided on Monday, after the FHSAA granted a temporary injunction to allow The First Academy to play in the playoffs. The school was banned from this year’s playoffs after the FHSAA ruled the school violated recruiting rules and allowed players to practice with the team before they were enrolled.
Below is a breakdown of each bracket where Central Florida schools are playing, which are underlined. Rankings are respective to each region:
Class 7A, Region 1
No. 8 Creekside at No. 1 DeLand
No. 5 Winter Park at No. 4 Boone
No. 7 Hagerty at No. 2 Lake Mary
No. 6 Seminole at No. 3 Spruce Creek
Class 7A, Region 2
No. 8 Ridge Community at No. 1 Venice
No. 5 Plant City at No. 4 West Orange
No. 7 Winter Haven at No. 2 Riverview Sarasota
No. 6 Ocoee at No. 3 Sumner
Class 7A, Region 3
No. 8 East Ridge at No. 1 Vero Beach
No. 5 Lake Nona at No. 4 St. Cloud
No. 7 Dr. Phillips at No. 2 Jupiter
Class 6A, Region 1
No. 8 Oviedo at No. 1 Buchholz
No. 6 Evans at No. 3 Pace
Class 6A, Region 2
No. 8 Melbourne at No. 1 Armwood
No. 5 Riverview at No. 4 Viera
No. 7 Plant at No. 2 South Lake
No. 6 Durant at No. 3 Osceola
Class 5A, Region 1
No. 7 Middleburg at No. 2 Mainland
Class 5A, Region 2
No. 8 Lake Gibson at No. 1 Edgewater
No. 7 Wesley Chapel at No. 2 Lakeland
No. 6 Winter Springs at No. 3 Gaither
Class 5A, Region 4
No. 8 Heritage at No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas
Class 4A, Region 2
No. 8 Deltona at No. 1 Jones
No. 5 Vanguard at No. 4 Auburndale
No. 7 Rockledge at No. 2 Zephyrhills
No. 6 New Smyrna Beach at No. 3 Lake Wales
Class 3A, Region 2
No. 8 Hernando at No. 1 Bishop Moore
No. 5 South Sumter at No. 4 Eastside
No. 7 Tavares at No. 2 Eau Gallie
No. 6 Titusville at No. 3 Merritt Island
Class 3A, Region 3
No. 8 Mulberry at No. 1 Booker
Class 2A, Region 2
No. 5 Berkley Prep at No. 4 The Villages Charter
No. 6 Newberry at No. 3 Cocoa
Class 1A, Region 1
No. 8 Trinity Catholic at No. 1 University Christian
Class 1A, Region 2
Region bracket delayed due to The First Academy injunction
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