By Michael Moline | Editor in Chief
“It means we can keep THC on the shelf through the holidays, and for a shop our size that’s not a small thing. But it’s one month, and Dec. 11 is a funding deadline. So, this isn’t settled, it’s postponed.” — Michael Smith, Herban Flow
A Tallahassee hemp store. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)
“Included in a congressional continuing resolution that President Trump signed Wednesday to fund the federal government through Dec. 11 is a provision that delays most of impending federal hemp restrictions that were set to go into effect on Nov. 12,” Mitch Perry reports. “Those restrictions — approved in an appropriations bill signed into law nearly a year ago — would change the federal definition of legal hemp to a ‘total THC standard’ that eliminates approximately 95% of existing hemp-derived products.” The Florida hemp market is worth at least $1 billion.
COMMENTARY
“Just when you thought state politics could not possibly get sleazier, Hope Florida comes roaring back from the dead, putrid yet powerful, casting a light on the breathtaking arrogance and corruption of Florida’s government,” columnist Diane Roberts writes. She details how Ron DeSantis, James Uthmeier, and Ashley Moody oversaw the “misappropriation” of $10 million meant to provide health care to poor sick kids to pursue the governor’s political priorities. Will the electorate punish anyone? “Maybe we’ll find out in November,” Roberts writes. “Maybe a couple of long-shot Democrats will break through. What is certain is that the Hope Florida ‘philosophy’ is as dead as a door nail.
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