A bill about to become law in Florida will likely wipe out much of the state’s $1.8 billion CBD market. The measure, which would ban all products that contain intoxicating hemp compounds and put crippling restrictions on CBD, passed both houses of the Florida state legislature this week.
The legislation (HB 1613) would specifically prohibit ingestible or inhalable products that contain delta-8 THC, 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.”
The Senate voted unanimously, 39-0, to pass the bill, while the House of Representatives voted 64-48. The law will go into effect Oct.1 if it is signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, which is expected.
Data provider Statista has projected Florida CBD retail sales in 2024 to reach $1.8 billion, which would make the state the second largest market behind California’s $3.3 billion, and just ahead of New York, with $1.5 billion. But the retail accounting fails to consider CBD bulk sales to the makers of synthetic hemp intoxicants. While no figures are available for those wholesale deals, the products rapidly proliferated over the past few years.
The synthetic products, sold as alternatives to those containing the more common delta-9 THC that occurs in high levels in marijuana, emerged after the 2018 Farm Bill legalized industrial hemp and its downstream products across the U.S. But the federal law created a loophole by not accounting for synthetically produced psychoactive products that can be made from hemp flowers.
Florida lawmakers say the law is intended to eliminate the risk of over-ingestion of the “high” producing compounds, especially by children, who are often targeted in marketing. In committee meetings ahead of 2024 legislative session, lawmakers heard reports from health officials about children having ingested such products, sometimes leading to hospital visits.
The bill’s provisions aimed at combating the marketing of intoxicating hemp products 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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