Intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids, including Delta-8 and Delta-10 THC, are now banned. This law also impacts CBD products and concludes a lengthy legal battle.
State Attorney General Tim Griffin (R) has formally announced that a state law banning certain hemp-derived intoxicating cannabinoids is now in effect. The move comes after litigation challenging an earlier state measure banning the sale of such products concluded.
After passage of the 2018 federal farm bill legalizing hemp, hemp-derived intoxicating cannabinoid products became available in the state, often in the forms of gummies and beverages. They were sold online and in convenience stores with no labeling or testing requirements and no age limits.
In 2023, lawmakers approved Senate Bill 358, which banned hemp-derived cannabinoids such as delta-8 and delta-10 THC by defining them as controlled substances under state law. But that law was challenged by hemp interests, and then blocked by a federal district court judge, who ruled that it was preempted by the legalization of hemp under the 2018 farm bill and ordered an injunction barring the state from enforcing it.
But the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the injunction last summer, allowing the state to enforce the ban on such products. It did so with gusto, with officers from the state Department of Finance and Administration seizing more than 6,000 products from store shelves within three months.
In the meantime, the legislature approved an update to the 2023 law, Act 934 of 2025. That law was set to go into effect once Attorney General Griffin certified that a final judgement had been issued in the litigation. He has now done so.
"It has been a long road to get to this point, but I am proud of my team for successfully defending the 2023 law, and I am happy to finally certify this Act," Griffin said in a statement.
Rep. Jimmy Garaway had cosponsored both the 2023 and 2025 bills. He pronounced himself pleased:
"Today’s certification conclusively ends the practice of selling illegal and intoxicating hemp-derived products in Arkansas," he said. "These products were essentially recreational, synthetic marijuana and were sold to Arkansans at gas stations and convenience stores with no age requirements and were deceptively labeled as safe and legal. I am proud to have co-sponsored Act 934 to provide oversight and to protect Arkansas consumers from these dangerous products."
But in banning hemp-derived intoxicating cannabinoids, the state has also effectively banned CBD. The new law bans the sale of non-intoxicating CBD, often used for medicinal purposes, if it has any trace of THC, which is the case with "full spectrum" CBD. And that is forcing growers and shops out of business.
"Arkansas’s CBD market gave people who don’t want to use medical marijuana a better option," said Caleb Smith, founder of the Arkansas Hemp Trade Association. "They’re not looking to get high. They just want something to help with their back pain, for example. We saw a big redirect with medical marijuana patients letting their cards expire, choosing instead to go to CBD apothecaries, which are now all shutting down."
Bill Morgan, doing business as Ozark Mountain Medicine, harvested his first hemp crop in 2021, producing high-quality full spectrum CBD extracts that he can now no longer sell.
"My hemp is now considered a controlled substance," Morgan said. "I was notified in late June about pending enforcement requiring me to shut down my business," he added. "I have maintained my license," he said, just in case the law changes. "I can grow hemp plants. I can warehouse dried hemp flower. But I cannot turn the resin into a marketable commodity."
This year, Morgan is not growing hemp. Instead, he's producing organic culinary mushrooms, melons, and tomatoes.