A senator's marathon filibuster halts a bill aiming to reclassify hemp products, igniting a fierce debate over industry control and public safety.
A bill that would define hemp-derived intoxicating cannabinoid products as marijuana and allow them to be sold only at licensed marijuana retailers has been stalled at least temporarily by a state senator who says she is acting in defense of the state's hemp industry.
Sen. Karla May (D-St. Louis) took to the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon in opposition to Senate Bill 904, the Intoxicating Cannabinoid Control Act, and filibustered the bill for the rest of the day.
The bill from Sen. David Gregory (R-St. Louis) mirrors federal legislation taking effect in November that tightens the definition of hemp from cannabis containing less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC to cannabis containing less than 0.3 percent total THC, effectively moving most intoxicating hemp products into the marijuana category. The measure would also force an end to sales by CBD stores, health and wellness retailers, convenience stores, and other non-licensed retailers.
Gregory said he was motivated by public safety concerns and preventing cannabis products from getting into the hands of minors.
"These products, we don’t know what’s in them," Gregory said. "There’s been tests already begun where we’re finding things like paint thinner. We have no idea where they’re coming from."
But May countered that she and the hemp industry could support regulations for public safety, and has filed her own bill, Senate Bill 1086, that would regulate intoxicating cannabinoids to protect minors. Gregory's bill, she argued, was a stalking horse for a bid by the state's legal marijuana industry to corner the market for cannabis products.
"I’m all for regulation," May said. "I’m just not for eliminating an industry for the benefit of another industry, creating an unfair business advantage in law that they can capitalize off of."
Gregory's bill has an emergency clause that would put it into effect immediately upon passage, which May said was evidence of the marijuana industry's perfidy.
"You’re trying to basically cut these businesses off without any remedy or time frame for them to reset and redo," May said. "In the end, it’s about big lobbies and money."
May had earlier filed an amendment to Gregory's bill that would delay its implementation until November 12, the date the new federal hemp law will go into effect and make implementation contingent on whether Congress revises the federal hemp law before November. That was voted down on the floor on Tuesday.
She then offered a second amendment that would delay implementation even further—to May 2027—with the same contingency language. Various senators resisted that move, and debate continued into the evening as she sought support for her amendment.