The Florida State Senate earlier this month unanimously passed a bill that would ban hemp-derived delta-8 THC and similar intoxicating hemp products.
In addition to delta-8, Senate Bill 1698 (SB 1698) would also specifically prohibit ingestible or inhalable products that contain delta-10 THC, HHC, THCA, THCP and THCV. All of those compounds are made by putting hemp-derived CBD through a synthetic process to produce highly concentrated substances that give users a “high.”
Passage likely
A companion bill under review in the state’s House of Representatives passed the Infrastructure Strategies Committee Thursday afternoon, and is headed for a vote. It is anticipated that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis will sign the final unified bill into law.
The intoxicating hemp products emerged after the 2018 Farm Bill legalized industrial hemp and its downstream products nationally. But the measure created a loophole by not accounting for psychoactive products that can be made from hemp flowers, which produce the CBD base material.
The Senate version of the bill would also limit hemp products to 0.3% total delta-9 THC or 2mg THC per serving/10mg THC per container, whichever is less. Delta-9 is the most common form of THC found in higher concentrations in marijuana plants, but it also appears naturally in trace amounts in industrial hemp.
Marketing restrictions
In addition to the THC provisions, the law would expand restrictions on advertising, packaging, and marketing at events where hemp products are sold. Lawmakers specifically expressed concern over products that are packaged to mimic popular brand-name snacks, making them attractive to youth.
Provisions on making hemp products less attractive to children define those as “products that are manufactured in the shape or packaged in containers displaying humans, cartoons, or animals, toys or other features that specifically target children; manufactured in a form or packaged in a container that bears any reasonable resemblance to an existing candy or snack product that is familiar to the public.”
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