New Alabama Law Bans Smokable Hemp And Regulates Hemp Products
A new Alabama law bans smokable forms of hemp and regulates other consumable hemp products.
Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey this week signed legislation to ban smokable forms of hemp and regulate other consumable hemp products. Ivey signed the bill over objections from representatives of the Alabama hemp industry and some state and local officials, who argue the new law threatens the viability of small businesses.
The Alabama House of Representatives approved the measure last month, followed by passage in the state Senate on May 6. Ivey signed the bill, HB 455, on Wednesday, according to a report from Alabama Reflector.
The legislation authorizes the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board to regulate consumable hemp products, which are broadly defined to include any finished product for human or animal consumption that contains any part of the hemp plant or hemp derivatives. The board is tasked with issuing licenses to oversee the manufacturing, distribution and sales of hemp consumables, similar to the agency's oversight of the state's alcoholic beverage industry.
According to the text of the new law, 'any smokeable hemp product' not limited to 'plant product or raw hemp material that is marketed to consumers as hemp cigarettes, hemp cigars, hemp joints, hemp buds, hemp flowers, hemp leaves, ground hemp flowers, or any variation of these terms to include any product that contains a cannabinoid, whether psychoactive or not' are prohibited by the measure.
Republican state Rep. Andy Whitt, the sponsor of the HB 445, noted that the measure also prohibits hemp THC vaporizers.
'Also outlawed within this bill are the smokables, the inhalables; such as your vapes that had THC, your buds, your flowers,' said Whitt.
The measure also restricts sales of consumable hemp products to adults aged 21 and older. Sales will only be permitted by retailers that are licensed to sell alcoholic beverages and stand-alone shops that do not permit access to minors. Online sales of hemp THC products are prohibited by the measure, as is the on-site consumption of such goods. The legislation also levies a tax on consumable hemp products.
HB 445 also sets a limit for individual consumable hemp products of 10mg THC, the cannabis compound primarily responsible for marijuana's psychoactive effects, with a limit 40mg THC per package.
Whitt said the legislation was necessary to protection children from unregulated intoxicating hemp products.
'It is putting guardrails on an unregulated and unlicensed product in the state of Alabama that's preying on our youth,' he said.
The Alabama Reflector reports that it is unclear whether the new law prohibits CBD, and non-intoxicating cannabis compound found in many hemp products. Representatives of the state's hemp industry lobbied against the measure, saying it will threaten Alabama small businesses.
'I feel that it will destroy the hemp industry here in Alabama,' Joe Resha, CEO of the Apothecary dispensary, told WVTM 13 television news. 'The only thing we'll be able to sell will be ten-milligram drinks, ten-milligram edibles that are individually packaged; everything will have to go. There will be no more on-site consumption, there'll be no more deliveries, no more e-commerce.'
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey
The bill was also opposed by some state and local officials. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin had encouraged Ivey to veto the bill, saying that it would return Alabama to 'an era of cannabis criminalization, overregulation, and lost opportunity.'
'By limiting access to legal hemp products, burdening small businesses with excessive restrictions, and imposing punitive taxes, this bill doesn't just regulate — it criminalizes,' Woodfin said. 'It locks out entrepreneurs, particularly Black and brown business owners who are often first to be policed and last to get licensed. It creates barriers where we should be building bridges — to opportunity, to equity, and to public health solutions that actually work. Alabama should be investing in the future of this industry — not regulating it into irrelevance.'
Alabama's hemp industry is expected to file suit against the new hemp regulation law, according to media reports.
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