As lawmakers convened for the 2025 Legislative Session, some were pulled into workshops discussing hemp regulation.

It seems like a waste of time.

Legislators in both the upper and lower chambers already litigated this last year, passing a bill with bipartisan support that would have imposed limits on high-inducing THC and placed restrictions on packaging appealing to kids. Simply put, it would have regulated an industry that has gone without rules for far too long. It got vetoed.

Republican Rep. Bill Partington perhaps put it best on Tuesday, asking a very salient question.

“How did we come to marijuana being so heavily regulated and hemp being the Wild West in Florida?”

In his veto last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis cited the possible blow to small businesses that sell hemp products. But he also provided lawmakers with all they need to pass legislation this year that he would be willing to sign, going so far as writing in his veto letter that “I encourage the Florida Legislature to reconsider this topic” and offering something of a blueprint.

“Sensible, non-arbitrary regulation will provide businesses and consumers alike with much-needed stability — safeguarding public health and safety, allowing legitimate industry to flourish, and removing bad actors from the market,” he wrote, adding three items to consider in new legislation: quality control, labeling marketing and packaging, and retail sales.

The Governor called for a bill that set quality standards to “ensure the purity, potency, and safety of hemp and hemp-derived products,” including random inspections along with repeated testing of products. He also wrote that he’s looking for “guidelines for accurate labeling,” including product contents and sources and any health claims and dosing instructions. He also called for behind-counter sales and a ban on sales near schools.

With a clear blueprint from the Governor, and a Legislature that has already shown willingness to pass legislation, why all the teeth-gnashing? And PS, there’s already legislation this year to consider (SB 1030 and HB 334, 438 and 601).

Why form a special committee and then note, as House Speaker Daniel Perez did when he formed the committee, that there will be no preconceived notions? There are preconceived notions. DeSantis provided all the info needed to create a bill that meets lawmakers’ established goals, while also remedying the Governor’s past concerns.

And it’s imperative that this get done.

As I drive around St. Pete, I see smoke shops, corner gas stations, hookah bars and other businesses peddling largely unregulated hemp products, brazenly announcing “no medical card needed!”

Other than age restrictions, these stores are essentially being given license to sell products ranging from “trippy mushrooms” to “full strength THC gummies,” all while being packaged in ways that still appeal to kids, and at dosing levels that would make even the staunches of wake-and-bake stoners blush.

How can this be, especially in a state that so tightly regulates medical marijuana?

The problem started with the 2018 Farm Bill, which established a federal framework for producing and processing versatile hemp crops. It included a so-called “loophole” that allowed the production of non-cannabis hemp extract products that compete with cannabis products.

Now, our state government has the opportunity to catch up, through sensible regulation that keeps businesses open, but without selling products that could be dangerous to consumers or risk kids getting their hands on pot-adjacent products.

Like medical marijuana, state law strictly regulates beer and wine sales. Everything from packaging limits to where harder booze can be sold has a rule. But here we are with high-inducing products available for sale as easy as grabbing a soda and candy bar on a road trip.

So to Florida lawmakers who for the next two months will be setting about the business of making the state run, this should be one of your easier tasks. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel because you already invented it, and the Governor told you how to tweak it to get it across the finish line.

So instead of a start-from-scratch approach, maybe you should be running — not walking — to that checkered flag. Because the longer you twiddle your thumbs workshopping something that’s already been workshopped, kids are overdosing and being poisoned by hemp products.

And I know, there’s a powerful hemp lobby that will continue to cry doom for small businesses. But pish posh, I say. Sensible regulations didn’t hurt medical marijuana treatment centers, nor did they cripple small businesses selling beer and wine, or even cigarettes.

Instead remember this: Certainty is actually good for business.

You know what’s not good for business? Sick kids.

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