Hemp retailers across Missouri slashed prices, cleared shelves and, in some cases, gave away products this week as they prepared for a new state law restricting the sale of hemp-derived THC.
Clearance bins appeared on gas station countertops. Smoke shops emptied display cases. And in one small Missouri town, those who served in the military were offered free products on Veterans Day.
The law, which took effect Thursday, prohibits many hemp-derived THC products from being sold outside Missouri’s licensed marijuana dispensaries. Certain hemp beverages are temporarily exempt, while broader federal restrictions are scheduled to take effect Dec. 11.
Brian Riegel, owner of South Point Hemp in Union, grows hemp at his farm and manufactures his products at his warehouse.
On Wednesday, Riegel closed his doors and liquidated his products.
“It’s just basically been a sad day,” Riegel said. “We’ve tried to get most of our customers to come in beforehand. We reached out to a lot of them to make sure they were aware of the laws that were coming into place.”
Riegel is also the treasurer of the Missouri Hemp Trade Association, which represents businesses selling and producing hemp products. This week has been hard for all the members, he said.
“They’re calling, crying because they’re firing people that have been working with them for five years,” he said. “There’s some people with multiple stores, so they had managers, multiple families relying on the income from this.”
Among his products is an intoxicating hemp seltzer, which can still be sold in Missouri until Dec. 11 unless Congress delays the federal ban again. Another federal delay could extend the reprieve for qualifying hemp beverages under Missouri law.
Throughout the state, “Last Chance” signs appeared in store windows, selling products for 70% off or more.
In Rosebud, John and Kara Grady were giving away their products for free to veterans. Many of their products were full-spectrum CBD, which have about 2 mg of THC to enhance the pain-relief and soothing properties of CBD. These products are still in limbo on a federal level, but in Missouri, they are now banned. The Gradys are both veterans and pride themselves on being a veteran-owned hemp business.
“The insult of all insults is today is Veterans Day,” John said, “and this is the last day we can sell any of our hemp products in the state of Missouri outside of beverages.”
While stores were clearing out their shelves, Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said enforcement efforts would focus on businesses selling prohibited products, rather than consumers who purchased them.
“Certainly no one enforcing the law is particularly concerned about the consumers,” Hanaway said. “It’s really the store owners and the sellers that we want to make sure are complying with the law.”
Hanaway’s office has primary jurisdiction over enforcement of the act’s provisions, according to a memo the Missouri Department of Public Safety sent out to industry members.
It states the attorney general may authorize the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the public safety department, Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, “or any other state agency it deems necessary, to aid in enforcement efforts.”
Amy Moore, director of the Division of Cannabis Regulation, which is part of the state health department, said it is ready to take direction from Hanaway’s office regarding lab testing or other resources needed.
On Wednesday, one gas station was selling a $50 box of “THCA” vape carts for only $5, and the product also contained CB9A – a synthetic compound made from cannabis.
Things like the vape carts, Moore said, highlight the evolution of products since Missouri lawmakers began talking about regulating intoxicating hemp in 2023.
“There’s the things that you can make by extracting what’s in the [cannabis] plant,” she said, “and then there’s a whole other world of things that you can recreate — and you can create them through conversion of things that come out of the plant.”
Most people traditionally think of these compounds as “synthetics,” she said, and they are crea
ted by adding some agent that causes a chemical reaction. Her team is most concerned about the byproducts that could come from the conversion process and how they affect the human body.
“In an unregulated environment, the kinds of solvents and agents that could be in there that we’re not requiring them to be taken out or tested for,” she said. “So yes, from the health perspective, there’s a lot going on that the department has been concerned about.”
Moore believes it’s more cost effective to create those synthetics or semi-synthetics.
“A lot of the product that is on the market now, online, in stores,” she said “is probably in that semi-synthetic or even synthetic realm now.”
Hanaway said her team has tested some of the products and found that they’re much more potent than the labels claim.
“Sometimes there’s heavy metals in it, and it’s a dangerous product,” Hanaway said. “And like any other food or drug, you want a regulated market so it doesn’t hurt people.”
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent.
