Politics
Lauren Book is walking across Florida in April to advocate for child abuse prevention
The bipartisan legislation adds would add new regulation and enforcement to the industry.
A Senate bill approved on the floor Wednesday would increase regulation for hemp products and provide funds for the state to buy testing hemp-detecting gear.
The bill (SB 438), which passed unanimously, would provide that a “marijuana testing laboratory may acquire hemp and hemp extract only from certain businesses.” It would also revise requirements for the sale and distribution of hemp extract and ban businesses and food establishments from possessing hemp or hemp extract products deemed “attractive to children.”
The measure would also earmark $2 million in state funds for state law enforcement equipment that could detect products with hemp in them during traffic stops.
“The bill says that you can have a beverage in a can, bottle or whatever up to 5% hemp. If it’s greater than that, it’s no longer hemp; it’s marijuana,” said the bill’s co-sponsor, Winter Haven Republican Sen. Colleen Burton.
She added that hemp products have largely gotten a pass in Florida since medicinal marijuana was legalized in 2017. But hemp is sometimes just as psychoactively potent, she said, and people who overuse the products have sometimes died.
Burton’s co-sponsor on the bill, Jacksonville Democratic Sen. Tracie Davis, said the proliferation of hemp in Florida is out of control, and it’s time to reel it in.
“We’re going to create that regulatory framework,” she said. “Lawmakers of this state that have regulated the medical marijuana industry, it is time to regulate the hemp industry.”
SB 438’s House companion (HB 1597) is nearly identical and is to be heard next by the Housing, Agriculture & Tourism Subcommittee.
There are nearly a half-dozen other measures in the Legislature this Session calling for increased restrictions on Florida’s hemp industry.
SB 438 follows increased regulations instituted by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in March that limit marketing campaigns for hemp products and could punish hemp companies that market to children.
A heated exchange at a budget hearing has the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) firing back at Rep. Alex Andrade.
At a House Health Care Budget Committee meeting Wednesday, Andrade, a Pensacola Republican, questioned how the Hope Florida initiative received $10 million in a settlement between a Medicaid managed care operator and the state.
That included an intense back-and-forth for over an hour. After the meeting, AHCA issued a statement intensely critical of Andrade, and AHCA Secretary Shevaun Harris posted a video alongside other agency heads in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration attacking the lawmaker.
“It’s concerning how little Representative Andrade understands about Medicaid, as demonstrated in his performative committee hearing today,” said AHCA spokesperson Mallory McManus. “He also purposefully misconstrued the structure and nature of the Hope Florida program, which is shameful. AHCA is proud of our work serving Floridians, particularly in helping people reduce government dependency and achieving economic self-sufficiency.”
Importantly, the agency has been a project championed by First Lady Casey DeSantis, who continues to mull a run for Governor in 2026 when her husband cannot seek re-election due to term limits.
Andrade has questioned claims that Hope Florida brought 30,000 Floridians off welfare, a number similar to that of individuals dropped from Medicaid.
He said the attacks on his questions attempt to dodge legislative oversight.
“Given the demonstrable incompetence exhibited by representatives of AHCA today, I’ll take this bizarre public statement as a badge of honor,” Andrade posted after AHCA issued its statement.
Harris in an online video called questions from lawmakers “a complete ambush.”
“It was clear that it was an ambush, an attack, on Hope Florida, a model and philosophy that was founded in 2021 and designed specifically to help Floridians,” Harris said. “It’s a shame that the good stories, the positive impact that the model has been able to do in our state, was discounted and instead focused on smear attacks and conflating the facts.”
Department of Children and Families Secretary Taylor Hatch echoed the concern.
“We have been able to serve 30,000 Floridians that have seen a reduction or a total removal of chronic dependency of benefits that has resulted in $100 million of savings by going outside of the four walls of government,” she said.
Education Secretary Manny Diaz Jr. and Juvenile Justice Secretary Eric Hall also cheered the program and called the House questions a “shameful approach.”
Andrade compared the online comments to a “hostage video.”
“My heart goes out to these public servants who’ve been put in a position to defend the terrible financial mismanagement of others in the Gov. Ron DeSantis administration,” he posted.
The exchange of words highlighted the tension between the House under Speaker Daniel Perez’s leadership and DeSantis, who in the first six years of his tenure largely saw the Legislature advance his agenda with little questioning.
The same committee has drawn attention to AHCA’s request for $160 million to pay for a Medicaid disallowance, money already given to the agency in 2023 for that purpose but which the agency spent elsewhere.
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