After DeSantis Veto, New Anti-Hemp Bill Cracking Down on ‘Wild West’ Industry Advances

 TALLAHASSEE—Months after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill cracking down on hemp and delta-8 products, a new, more severe version unanimously passed its first Senate committee hearing on Monday.

And while Republican Sen. Colleen Burton, the sponsor of both last year’s killed measure and this year’s new one, acknowledged that her 13-page measure follows some of the suggestions made by DeSantis after his veto, she pointed out one difference:

The economic impact on hemp distributors does not “outweigh” the potential health effects on Floridians.

“While that might be a reality, I would suggest that the impact to the health of Floridians outweighs…the potential impact of adjustments that purveyors of THC-infused products have to make under this bill,” Burton said in Monday’s Senate Agriculture Committee, later adding that if she could, she would ban both hemp and marijuana.

It’s a similar argument DeSantis made in opposing a recreational marijuana amendment. He helped kill the measure using his “Florida Freedom Fund,” a political committee founded to squash both the marijuana referendum and an abortion measure. 

It’s also where a hemp grower donated $100,000 after DeSantis vetoed the 2024 bill in June.

What does the bill do?

SB 438 includes last year’s proposed ban on delta-8 and delta-10 products in hemp and limits THC—the “high” ingredient in marijuana—to under 5 milligrams per hemp serving or 50 milligrams per container. It also includes DeSantis’s suggestions outlined in his veto letter to ban hemp stores within 500 feet of schools, daycare centers, motor fuel retail outlets, and other hemp stores.

A new controversial provision would ban THC-infused drinks from being sold anywhere besides businesses licensed to sell alcohol. It was strongly opposed by dozens of public speakers, including the founders of the St. Pete-based small business Herban Flow, a non-alcoholic bottle shop selling cannabis and mushroom-based products for Floridians sober from alcohol hoping to partake in “social drinking.”

“It’s not fair,” said co-founder Michael Smith. He explained that, as someone who’s five years sober, the bill could tempt people who use THC as an alternative to alcohol to break their sobriety.

“You’re truly just killing small business,” he added.

But Democrat Sen. Darryl Rouson disagreed.

In debate, he revealed that as someone who woke up in a treatment center 27 years ago to the day, being clean means “no intoxicating beverages or mood or mind-altering drugs.”

“I do not think this is a good bill, but I support the regulatory aspects,” he said, calling the hemp industry the “wild, wild west.”

Other provisions in the bill include a ban on advertising hemp on the street or the sidewalk and banning event organizers from partnering with illegal hemp vendors. It requires hemp products to be locked away or behind the retail counter to keep them away from consumers, and they must be tested by medical marijuana labs, not independent testing labs. 

This is Burton’s third time bringing a hemp bill to the Legislature, most recently being her 6-page bill from last year. While that bill lacked bans on hemp business locations or regulations on THC beverages, it banned delta-8 products, restricted the amount of THC in hemp products, and cracked down on hemp products that are alluring to children.

Though the bill passed the Legislature, DeSantis vetoed it two months later. Burton has since incorporated all of the 2024 bill into this year’s.

“Hemp-infused products are intoxicating—that’s why they’re sold,” she said. “That 's why we need to put regulations on it.”

The bill passed unanimously and will head to the Senate Committee on Fiscal Policy.