‘We’re going to create that regulatory framework’: Senate gives thumbs up to tougher hemp restrictions

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A Senate bill approved on the floor Wednesday would increase regulation for hemp products and provide funds for the state to buy testing hemp-detecting gear.

The bill (SB 438), which passed unanimously, would provide that a “marijuana testing laboratory may acquire hemp and hemp extract only from certain businesses.” It would also revise requirements for the sale and distribution of hemp extract and ban businesses and food establishments from possessing hemp or hemp extract products deemed “attractive to children.”

The measure would also earmark $2 million in state funds for state law enforcement equipment that could detect products with hemp in them during traffic stops.

“The bill says that you can have a beverage in a can, bottle or whatever up to 5% hemp. If it’s greater than that, it’s no longer hemp; it’s marijuana,” said the bill’s co-sponsor, Winter Haven Republican Sen. Colleen Burton.

She added that hemp products have largely gotten a pass in Florida since medicinal marijuana was legalized in 2017. But hemp is sometimes just as psychoactively potent, she said, and people who overuse the products have sometimes died.

Burton’s co-sponsor on the bill, Jacksonville Democratic Sen. Tracie Davis, said the proliferation of hemp in Florida is out of control, and it’s time to reel it in.

“We’re going to create that regulatory framework,” she said. “Lawmakers of this state that have regulated the medical marijuana industry, it is time to regulate the hemp industry.”

SB 438’s House companion (HB 1597) is nearly identical and is to be heard next by the Housing, Agriculture & Tourism Subcommittee.

There are nearly a half-dozen other measures in the Legislature this Session calling for increased restrictions on Florida’s hemp industry.

SB 438 follows increased regulations instituted by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in March that limit marketing campaigns for hemp products and could punish hemp companies that market to children.