The Show-Me State just showed up – hemp sales are back in Missouri!

In a letter from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, they agree with what we’ve always known, hemp is legal! 

As we previously reported, Governor Mike Parson issued an outrageous Executive Order which would have banned hemp food products that contain delta-8 THC, delta-10 THC, THC-O, THCP, THCV, HHC, or “similar substances” (which could be potentially broadly read to ban many intoxicating delta-9 products as well).

Then, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a political rival of the Governor’s, blocked Parson’s emergency rule that would have allowed Alcohol and Tobacco Control to prevent intoxicating products from being sold at liquor-licensed facilities.

In the middle of this political infighting, the Missouri Hemp Trade Association stepped up, filing a temporary restraining order to fight this overreach from the Missouri government. 

Then on September 17th, the general counsel for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Richard Moore, said in a letter that the state’s health regulators will stop embargoing — or tagging — products simply because they contain hemp-derived THC. 

Specifically in the letter, DHSS says “In regard to psychoactive cannabis products, the department will focus its efforts on the identification of  ‘misbranded’ products”.

This decision aligns with the Roundtable’s guiding light, with robust regulation, and not misguided prohibition, we can go after the few bad actors in the hemp industry, without destroying good actors playing by the rules. 

Missouri Hemp Trade Association spokesperson, and Board Member of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, Craig Katz, said the association supports the attorney general’s efforts “to prosecute bad actors marketing counterfeit and misbranded hemp products to children.”

Please join us in celebrating this win for small businesses and hemp farmers throughout Missouri!