“All of this stuff would be taken off the shelves. This is almost 90 percent of our product line. It will probably destroy our business.”
By Phillip Smith, The American Hemp Monitor
Hawaii regulators are set to begin cracking down Wednesday on hemp and CBD retailers who have not registered under a law passed last year. The measure took effect January 1, but the state allowed a grace period before pursuing enforcement.
Only 50 shops have registered so far. A group of hemp businesses has instead gone to federal court, asking for a preliminary injunction to freeze enforcement while the matter is litigated.
“What that’ll do is say, ‘hey, let’s pause the law for a second. Let’s make sure everything’s right, everything’s fair,’ and in our argument, it hasn’t been fair,” said Lance Alyas, a plaintiff who owns four hemp and CBD stores.
Andrew Goff, the state’s Medical Cannabis Control director, said shop owners had ample notice. “You had time to change your inventory or pivot from whatever industry you want to go into. And I think we’ve given people enough time for that,” he said.
Under the law, only items meeting the definition of a “manufactured hemp product” can be sold, and they must meet total THC limits, lab-testing rules, ingredient restrictions and child-safety packaging and labeling standards. Edibles, topicals and beverages qualify if compliant, but vapes, smokeable hemp and products containing “artificially derived or synthetic cannabinoids” — including those made from CBD — do not. THC is capped at 1 milligram per serving and 5 milligrams per package.
“A lot of those products are meant to be intoxicating,” Goff said. “And products like smokables, vapes, those have never been legal under Hawaii law.”
Alyas said he already pulled highly potent synthetic products but is anxious about the rest of his inventory. “These are all naturally derived. So there’s nothing synthetic in it. This is flower, for example. We have gummies. These are specifically for sleep. We’ve got smokables like these,” he said. “All of this stuff would be taken off the shelves. This is almost 90 percent of our product line. It will probably destroy our business.”
Retailers have found little support among lawmakers. Rep. Scot Matayoshi (D), who chairs the House Consumer Protection Committee, told Hawaii News Now: “If putting these people out of business means getting these products off the streets…that are falling into the hands of kids and that are circumventing our other laws, then they should be out of business.”
Enforcement begins Wednesday, but a federal judge could halt it as soon as Thursday, when the case is scheduled to be heard and a ruling could come immediately.
This story was first published by The American Hemp Monitor.