Missouri Governor Mike Parson once again took to his podium Tuesday to announce a crackdown on unregulated psychoactive cannabis products. He announced a joint task force between the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control and Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office that will help get products off of shelves and build on Bailey’s existing investigation into these products.
Because of what some consider a “hemp loophole,” some chemicals extracted from the cannabis plant are mostly federally unregulated. Parson issued an executive order Aug. 1 seeking to ban products with these chemicals, enforced through the Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control and the Department of Health and Senior Services.
However, while the DHSS began enforcing the ban Sept. 1, ATC enforcement was delayed after Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft refused to sign off on the emergency rules submitted by the department.
Tuesday’s announcement brings them back into the fold.
According to Bailey, the ATC will be responsible for investigating stores with liquor licenses and collecting evidence of “deceptive marketing practices.”
The ATC will then submit referrals to the Attorney General’s Office through a new “dedicated electronic repository.” Finally, the office will be able to “instantly evaluate those referrals and proceed with legal action against licensees who are breaking the law,” Bailey said.
Bailey is also creating a new division of the Consumer Protection Section of the AG’s office that he said will “work hand-in-hand with ATC to offer legal support.”
“Our enforcement toolkit will be robust, from cease and desist letters and investigations to subpoenas and lawsuits to referrals for criminal prosecution where appropriate,” Bailey said. “We're committed to keeping unsafe products away from our kids and ensuring that those who break the law are held accountable.”
The task force builds on the investigation into these products that Bailey launched in April, which attempts to determine whether businesses are violating the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act.
The MMPA is a consumer-protection statute that makes “deception, fraud, false pretense, false promise, misrepresentation, unfair practice or the concealment, suppression, or omission of any material fact in connection with the sale or advertisement of any merchandise” unlawful.
A Bailey spokesperson did not specify when asked whether the investigation targets all products with hemp-derived psychoactive compounds, or only ones that market in a specifically deceptive way.
During the press conference, both Bailey and Parson held up what looked like normal, branded bags of candy, but actually contained cannabis, they said. Parson did the same when he announced his executive order Aug. 1.
Members of the Missouri Hemp Trade Association say that despite lobbying for regulations for years and self-regulating their products in the meantime, they are being lumped in with “bad actors.”
“We want to make sure we're getting the right regulations out there,” said John Grady, farmer and co-owner of Slaphappy Hemp Company. “We want to protect our children. We want to protect Missouri citizens.”
Parson said his actions aren’t meant to be a permanent solution.
“Our order allows us to stand in the gap on the behalf of Missouri families, until such time the General Assembly can offer a legislative solution to keep unregulated psychoactive cannabis products out of the hands of our children,” he said.
Parson was flanked by various high-ranking Missouri officials, including Missouri House Majority Leader Jonathan Patterson, who is expected to be the next House speaker. He said he would push for regulations of these products during the next legislative session.
“This is something that we will pursue, trying to provide a regulatory framework for these products, some rules in place so that they're not marketed towards kids,” Patterson said.
That, along with Parson’s acknowledgment that some in the hemp industry are “legitimate businesses,” provided some comfort to stakeholders in the Missouri hemp industry, who have been facing uncertainty over whether their businesses will have a future.
“It sounds like the governor and [attorney general] pivoted from their initial broad brush that they originally did that was really going to impact the Missouri hemp industry,” Grady said. “It seems like we are going to a targeted enforcement of getting those illegal products out of Missouri, those things that are targeted towards our children, and hopefully working with us and letting the legislative body work with the industry to protect Missouri's children, protect Missouri businesses, to give us fair, practical and reasonable hemp regulations.”
Since the Department of Health and Senior Services began enforcing the ban Sept. 1, it has "embargoed" 8,929 unregulated psychoactive cannabis items at 39 facilities, according to Parson's press release.
A DHSS spokesperson said what an embargo entails depends on what a business agrees to, and can mean destroying products, removing them from shelves, or tagging them with “do not use” tape. Some retailers refuse to embargo the products at all. The Missouri Independent reports that some business owners claim they were forced to destroy products.
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