by Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
May 7, 2025
A year ago, members of Florida’s hemp industry were lobbying Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto a bill regulating hemp-derived THC products that many claimed if signed into law would be a devastating blow to their livelihoods.
Their mission was accomplished when he did in fact veto the proposal last June.
That won’t be required this year; the Legislature failed to pass anything on hemp before unofficially ending the legislative session on Friday night (they are expected to return to Tallahassee later this month to deal exclusively with budget-related matters).
The central problem appeared to be the substantive differences between the Senate bill sponsored by Polk County Republican Colleen Burton (SB 438) and the House version (HB 7027) sponsored by Panhandle Republican Michelle Salzman.
The two measures would have capped the potency of hemp-derived THC products, placed advertising restrictions, and required hemp to be tested by a certified medical cannabis laboratory. But there were some big differences: The Senate bill (like its 2024 version) called for the outright ban of synthetic cannabinoids like Delta-8 and said that the newly popular hemp-infused drinks could only be sold through a retailer holding a liquor license.
Salzman’s bill in the House did not ban Delta-8. Neither did it call for retailers to have a liquor license, but it did include a 15% excise tax on all hemp purchases. Jonathan Miller, general counsel for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, said the House bill was better for his industry than the Senate’s version, and said he appreciated the work that Rep. Salzman devoted to trying to find the right balance.
“In its final form, we said that it wasn’t perfect, but it was a significant improvement on the Senate bill and so in the end nothing passing was better than the Senate bill passing,” Miller said. He’s “hopeful,” he said, that between now and next year’s legislative session “people will realize that the House version is the model to start working from and hopefully produce something that really both protects farmers and consumers at the same time.”
‘Honestly afraid’
Carlos Hermida, who owns two hemp shops in the Tampa Bay area, says the Senate’s ban on synthetic cannibinoids like Delta-8 and Delta-10 would have eliminated most hemp products from his establishments.
“I was honestly afraid that we would have to close down,” he said last week when it became evident there would be no bill this year. “Of course it will be good for my bottom line. I can still sell drinks, I can sell the products that my customers need, and I can still advertise.”
A new element in this discussion from a year ago has been the emergence of hemp-derived THC beverages being sold throughout the state. Burton’s proposal would have required sales only at locations licensed to sell alcoholic beverages. Both bills limited the amount of THC in such drinks (5 milligrams per container in the Senate, 10 milligrams per container in the House), while the House bill would have banned consumption of such drinks on the retailer’s premises.
Those restrictions might work for establishments like ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, a major liquor retail chain, said Michael Smith, co-owner of Herban Flow in St. Petersburg. But it wouldn’t work for his two stores, which feature a large selection of THC-infused drinks.
“With [Florida] being such a tourism/hospitality state, these bars are trying to develop server menus and other type of non-alcoholic menus for people to partake and join out with their friends, and the House bill would have taken away on-site consumption completely,” he said. “Losing that ability to go out there and sell at festivals and farmers markets, that would have significantly hurt us.”
During the final committee stop in the House, Rep. Salzman said she was resolute in keeping that provision in her bill, saying that there are no mechanisms to test for intoxication from those THC-infused drinks.
‘This stuff has got to be regulated’
With Congress largely silent on the issue, it has been up to the states to regulate hemp-derived THC products since the U.S. Farm Bill legalized hemp in 2018. While roughly half the states in the nation have placed some regulations on such products (and some, such as Idaho, have banned the product outright), Florida continues to struggle with such measures.
That’s a problem, says Ellen Snelling, of the Hillsborough County Anti-Drug Alliance.
“I’m extremely disappointed,” says said, noting that House Speaker Daniel Perez had convened a special workgroup that met for three days during the first week of the session to learn more about the hemp business from those in the industry.
“I thought, ‘This is great. This is going to work this year,’” she recounted.
Then Snelling saw the disparate House and Senate bill versions posted. “As time went on, it just seemed like they weren’t going to come to a consensus and be able to get it done. But both bills had some positive things in it, and I just wish there was some way that they have gotten together and gotten a bill passed, because it’s past time, because this stuff has got to be regulated.”
Florida is not the only state that failed to come up with regulations on hemp-derived THC products this year. In Georgia last month, a bill addressing concerns about high THC dosages passed in the state Senate but stalled in the House, as well.
“It’s really a game of whack-a-mole,” said U.S. Hemp Roundtable’s Miller.
“Over the course of legislative sessions, we’ve seen things pop up and we try to hammer them down, and sometimes we miss but in general I think the movement is towards robust regulation as opposed to bans. I think with this new hemp beverage industry there’s a lot more excitement about that, and so I think you’re going to see more Legislatures really trying to come up with solutions that provide for strong access to consumers while ensuring protection of the products.”
It should be noted that both Senate and House bills passed unanimously in all of the committees in which they were heard, and the full Senate voted unanimously in support of that bill when it came to the floor last month. The House version never came to the floor of that chamber.
“We will continue to debate how hemp affects public health and our economy,” Salzman told the Phoenix in an emailed comment last week. “There are legal gaps we need to address in the future and I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure these products are safe and protect consumers, while still allowing Florida farmers to thrive.”
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