Four major hemp companies, Tasty Haze, LLC, The Humble Hemp Shack, LLC, Seedless Green, LLC and Mellow Fellow Fun, LLC unsuccessfully sued Gov. Kay Ivey over the signing of House Bill 445, which increases consumable hemp regulations and restrictions in Alabama. The lawsuit was filed June 26 in an attempt to delay the bill’s effects before being denied on June 30.
The lawsuit aimed to put in place an emergency temporary restraining order to delay the law, which went into effect on Tuesday that brought sweeping changes to the Alabama hemp industry and the criminalization of some hemp products.
The law, authored by state Rep. Andy Whitt, completely bans the sale of hemp products to people under 21, the online purchase and direct delivery of hemp products, the use of synthetic conversion and the sale of smokable hemp products or psychoactive cannabis.
“HB445 neither bans all hemp-derived THC products, nor does it legalize recreational marijuana,” Whitt said. “What it does is introduce common sense controls on substances that are already federally legal.”
The companies sued Ivey on the grounds that the law violated the 2018 Farm Bill, a federal law that differentiated consumable hemp from marijuana as long as it used naturally occurring aspects of the plant.
The plaintiffs claimed HB445 violates this in their filing since it designated synthesizing those natural elements, a process that when done incorrectly introduces unnatural molecules that induce intoxicating effects, as illegal.
They also said the law violated the Dormant commerce clause, which prohibits states from unduly burdening interstate commerce, since the law strictly regulates or prohibits certain products from crossing state lines.
However, their largest complaint was that designating selling smokable hemp or hemp with psychoactive molecules made through chemical synthesis as criminal offenses would devastate the growing hemp industry and force some owners of hemp stores to close their businesses or be given a criminal designation.
Montgomery County Circuit Judge James Anderson denied a preliminary injunction filed by the plaintiffs on Monday. Anderson found that the law did not impede the hemp industry to the degree alleged by the companies. The law went into effect as of July 1 with the long term effects of the law on the hemp industry as well dangerous hemp production and children’s access yet to be seen.