Latest news with #MissouriMerchandisingPracticesAct
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Missouri Attorney General threatens legal action against 18 hemp companies; more to come
(Rebecca Rivas/The Missouri Independent) Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has sent several cease-and-desist letters to companies selling a hemp product called THCA flower that looks exactly like marijuana flower sold at dispensaries. Bailey's letters threaten legal action, including injunctions, civil penalties and attorney's fees if the companies continue to sell the products. 'When purchasing products, Missourians deserve to know if they are being exposed to dangerous side effects like psychotic episodes, hallucinations or other life-threatening risks,' said Attorney General Bailey in a statement to The Independent. 'We have issued 18 cease and desist letters so far, and more are forthcoming.' Cannabis lobbyist Eapen Thampy said about a dozen smoke shops in St. Louis received the letters, and in some cases, THCA flower makes up 60% to 80% of the companies' inventories. Thampy said he's working with the companies to put together a response to the letters and preparing for potential litigation. The action is the first major move since Bailey created a new specialized unit last fall, with the aim to assist the state's alcohol and tobacco regulators in cracking down on intoxicating hemp products. In September, Bailey vowed his new unit would work with the Missouri Alcohol and Tobacco Control Division to bring legal action against licensees selling unregulated psychoactive cannabis products that violate the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. 'The ATC will assist by making its investigators available as witnesses for legal proceedings resulting from actionable referrals,' Bailey said in September. 'Our enforcement toolkit will be robust from cease-and-desist letters and investigations to subpoenas and lawsuits to referrals for criminal prosecution where appropriate.' The letters that went out last month state that the companies are 'directed to cease and desist from selling' hemp products that contain more than 0.3% THCA on a dry weight basis. THCA is a naturally abundant cannabinoid that transforms into Delta-9 THC when smoked or heated. However, this is not what an official cease and desist order looks like, said Jefferson City-based attorney Chuck Hatfield. 'It is an informal cease and desist,' Hatfield said. 'It is not a letter that has the force and effect of law. It's more in the nature of a request to stop.' Under state law, if Bailey wanted to issue an official cease and desist order – as he did for Planned Parenthood in March – Hatfield said Bailey would have to issue a notice of intent first. The company would have the right to appeal through an administrative hearing, as well as challenge the order in court. 'But he hasn't done any of that,' Hatfield said. Bailey could also file a lawsuit under Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, and that doesn't require a cease and desist order, he said. Charles Alovisetti, a cannabis attorney with Vincente law firm in Boston, said the lack of a state law to support the action could put Bailey in a tricky spot. 'If the goal is to control THCA flower sales, states should regulate hemp products in their final form, including THCA flower, through clear legislation,' Alovisetti wrote in a LinkedIn post. 'Letters like this may not hold up in court.' For the third year in a row, state lawmakers failed to pass legislation to regulate intoxicating hemp products by the end of the session in May. At issue in Bailey's letters is THCA, which is not intoxicating in its natural state. Most marijuana flower found in dispensaries contains about 20-40% THCA, which would not get a person high if they consumed it without heating it. It has to be smoked to transform it into Delta-9 THC, which produces the desired high for consumers. The process of heating is called decarboxylation. Legal action against THCA hemp flower raises a dizzying debate about distinction between hemp and marijuana under federal law. Cannabis attorney Rod Kight, who has represented hemp businesses in lawsuits nationwide, said Bailey's letter accurately states that the sole distinction between legal hemp and illegal marijuana is the concentration of delta-9 THC, which cannot exceed 0.3% for hemp. The part Bailey gets wrong, Kight said, is claiming that THCA is part of the calculation for determining whether harvested hemp or a hemp product is lawful. 'Given that Missouri law does not address THCA at all, it is clear that the attorney general is relying on recent letters from the DEA in support of its position that the concentration of THCA must be taken into account when determining the legal status of harvested hemp and hemp products,' Kight said. However, he said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's interpretation has caused a lot of confusion. 'Hemp growers must account for THCA before harvesting their hemp crops,' Kight said. 'Thereafter, the THCA concentration does not matter under federal law or the laws of Missouri and the 'post-decarboxylation' test does not apply to harvested hemp or hemp products sold by wholesalers or retailers.' Since the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp, botanists have figured out how to breed cannabis plants capable of passing the only federal checkpoint required on hemp plants — a visit from U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors 30 days before harvest. At that point, the levels of Delta-9 THC and THCA are below the federal threshold, but both increase before being harvested 30 days later. Kight said he believes there's lots of marijuana flower sold in dispensaries that would probably meet this standard of hemp as well. It's a point that's being argued in court, he said. 'THCA is the most abundant cannabinoid that cannabis produces,' he said. 'If there's any cannabinoid that humans have truly ingested for thousands of years, it's THCA. The hemp industry is moving kind of back towards this more natural sort of state of affairs, and I'm very pleased with that.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Planned Parenthood must comply with Missouri AG request for patient records, court rules
Attorney General Andrew Bailey answers reporters' questions on Jan. 13 in the Missouri Capitol. Bailey has been fighting a series of challenges of his civil investigative demands as he seeks to investigate gender-affirming care in Missouri (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). Planned Parenthood Great Rivers must turn over documents about gender-affirming care to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, an appeals court ruled Tuesday morning. Bailey has been looking into the use of cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers and gender-transition surgeries for minors in the state since March 2023, when a former case worker at the Washington University Transgender Center claimed the center rushed children into treatment. As part of his probe into Washington University and 'other providers,' Bailey's office sent civil investigative demands to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Washington University in St. Louis and the state's two branches of Planned Parenthood — all of which have fought to protect patient information. Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which oversees clinics in St. Louis and southwest Missouri, refused to turn over documents to Bailey, challenging his request as a misuse of Missouri's consumer protection law and a violation of federal patient privacy law. A St. Louis Circuit Court judge ruled last year that the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act allows the attorney general to investigate deceptive medical practices but doesn't supersede HIPAA. HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, protects patients from providers disclosing their personally identifiable health information. For Bailey to get certain records from Planned Parenthood, Circuit Court Judge Michael F. Stelzer ruled in April of last year, patients would have to sign away their HIPAA rights. But Tuesday's judgment, written by Judge Rebeca Navarro-McKelvey of Missouri's Eastern District Court of Appeals, said HIPAA doesn't prevent Planned Parenthood from providing de-identified records. Additionally, Planned Parenthood didn't provide the attorney general a privilege log, or a list of exceptions to Bailey's requests, to assess each claim. A Western District Court of Appeals ruling filed in April against Missouri's other Planned Parenthood affiliate also took issue with the lack of a privilege log. In both cases, the appellate courts rejected the notion that Planned Parenthood was exempt from the entire investigative demand, but further court proceedings can assess whether some of the attorney general's 54 requests are protected from disclosure. 'Crucially, a blanket HIPAA-based objection does not make the CID unenforceable,' Navarro-McKelvey wrote in Tuesday's ruling. 'As the burden is on (Planned Parenthood Great Rivers) as the covered entity to comply with HIPAA when responding to subpoenas.' Planned Parenthood's attorney, Matthew Eddy, argued the opposite in a circuit court hearing last June, saying the Attorney General's Office must prove exceptions to HIPAA in its request. The Eastern District Court of Appeals will soon hear patient-privacy arguments in a separate lawsuit between Bailey and Washington University. The case's arguments in circuit court established that unredacted patient information was exempt from Bailey's demands and some data was irrelevant to his search. Among his requests to Washington University, Bailey's office asked for 'access to all electronic health records of clients.' Bailey appealed that decision, saying his access to the information was 'inevitable' under state law. 'While we are disappointed with the court's decision, we are evaluating our next steps as this is just another political attack against the bodily autonomy and rights of transgender and gender-nonconforming Missourians,' said Margot Riphagen, president and CEO Planned Parenthood Great Rivers. 'As a trusted health care provider, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers will continue to support our gender affirming care patients across the St. Louis region and Missouri Ozarks while ensuring our patients' health information remains secure and protected.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Webster County solar company faces lawsuit from Missouri Attorney General
STRAFFORD, Mo. – The Office of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is taking legal action against a man from Houston, Missouri, and his company based in Strafford, Missouri, for allegedly violating the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. The six-count petition was filed in Texas County Circuit Court on Thursday, April 10, against Luke Arthur of Houston, Missouri, and Simple Solar LLC, which conducts business out of Webster County. The petition alleges the solar business made misrepresentations to Missouri consumers about its residential solar energy generation systems by telling customers the company would reimburse consumers during the first 12 months of their solar system installation loan payments. 'Contrary to Defendants' representations, after the systems were financed and installed, Defendants failed to make the first year's loan payments,' the petition alleges. The petition alleges Simple Solar LLC – which does business in numerous states throughout the country, including Missouri – had 'ample opportunity to correct these deficiencies, but consistently have refused to do so.' Because most consumers are unable to pay for Simple Solar's systems out of pocket, the business partners with several lenders who provide all or most of the purchase price, the petition says. Sales representatives would pitch Simple Solar to consumers by claiming solar energy would save them money in the end, and that Simple Solar would pay customers for the first 12 months of their loan payments – but that's a false promise, the petition alleges. According to the petition, the AG office has received complaints from Simple Solar customers. These customers called Simple Solar 'over and over again,' asking the company to reimburse them, but no payments ever came. If customers choose not to make loan payments, they are at risk of the lender – which files and records a lien on their home until the loan is fully paid off – filing a lawsuit to enforce the lien, which could result in customers' homes being sold out from under them, the petition alleges. Additionally, the petition alleges that Simple Solar concealed the fact that the company was delinquent in paying suppliers and were winding down the business. The petition asks for restitution to all of the company's consumer victims and to award any additional relief that the court deems fit. Court dockets say no summons is requested at this time. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
