Four companies that produce and sell smokable and consumable hemp products have asked a court to block a portion of Alabama’s new law banning some of those products.
The companies filed the lawsuit in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Friday asking for a restraining order to prevent enforcement of the new law while the case is pending.
Parts of the law, known as HB445, are scheduled to take effect Tuesday.
The four companies, Mellow Fellow Fun LLC, Tasty Haze LLC, The Humble Hemp Shack LLC, and Seedless Green LLC, claim that HB445 violates federal law, because it will ban the possession, shipment and sales of federally legal hemp products.
Mellow Fellow Fun is a Delaware-based company, while the other three are based in Alabama.
The lawsuit says the 2018 federal farm bill that made hemp legal and distinct from marijuana also prohibited states from blocking the transportation of legal products made from hemp.
The federal law defined hemp as cannabis with Delta 9 THC content of no more than 0.3%. Cannabis with more THC is marijuana.
HB445, passed by the Legislature in May and signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey, puts hemp-derived products and retailers under regulation by the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, imposing a 10% tax, banning some items, restricting THC content in others, and setting up new requirements for packaging, labeling, and testing, as well as civil and criminal penalties for violations.
Parts of the law will not take effect until January.
But HB445 specifically banned two categories of products – any form of smokable hemp, such as flowers, buds, or pre-rolled cigarettes – and products such as gummies and beverages containing forms of THC made by a chemical synthesis process.
That part of the law takes effect July 1, Attorney General Steve Marshall has said.
Possession or sale of the banned products would be a Class C felony, punishable by one to 10 years in prison.
The lawsuit says the product bans in HB445 “will convert dozens of lawful business owners into criminals overnight.”
The plaintiffs also claim the definitions of what is banned are vague.
They claim that businesses face uncertainty about what is legal and that law enforcement will not be able to effectively administer the law.
“As they exist, HB445’s ‘smokable hemp ban’ and ‘synthetic hemp ban’ fail to provide fair notice of what products are prohibited and open the door for arbitrary enforcement in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the lawsuit says.
The plaintiffs claim the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution preempts Alabama’s ban on smokable hemp and synthetic THC because the state’s law conflicts with the 2018 federal farm bill.
The plaintiffs asked the court for a prompt hearing to consider their request for a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the law.
The lawsuit says the plaintiffs are challenging only the portions of HB445 that ban smokable hemp and synthetic THC.
It says the plaintiffs support parts of HB445, including regulations by the ABC Board and requirements for labels with product ingredients and health warnings.
The lawsuit names Attorney General Marshall and Gov. Ivey as defendants.
On Friday, Marshall held a news conference about search warrants and products seized from hemp/THC shops in five Alabama cities.
The operation was not related to HB445 but was based on the state’s longstanding ban on marijuana.
Officials said the raids were part of a nearly year-long investigation that came in response to complaints from citizens about products being sold as hemp that were actually marijuana.
Officials announced no arrests but displayed dozens of packages of products that they said exceeded the 0.3% legal limit for hemp and were therefore marijuana.
The new state law banning smokable hemp products and those with synthetically made THC takes effect Tuesday. Read More
