When Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced an emergency ban on hemp THC products last month, he said it was a response to a dire public health emergency and promised that the state government would act quickly to enforce his ban.
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“We’ve had enough,” Newsom said during a press conference. “These emergency regulations will allow us to move forward to clamp down on that.” He was backed up by Mark Ghaly, then the secretary of California Health and Human Services, who promised, “We’re going to take it to the next level and make sure enforcement is out there.”
Newsom got his wish: Selling products made with hemp THC, an intoxicant found in cannabis, became immediately illegal across the state on Sept. 23. But despite his vow to immediately enforce the ban, his emergency action does not appear to be working.
SFGATE found that Bay Area convenience stores continue to sell hemp THC products, including Delta-8-THC vape cartridges, pre-rolled joints with THC and delta-9-THC edibles. SFGATE visited three tobacco stores last week — two in Daly City and one in San Francisco — and purchased hemp THC products at all three stores.
Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Newsom, said in an email to SFGATE that state agencies are currently ramping up enforcement of the governor’s ban.
“Retailers who ignore the regulations and continue to offer hemp products containing THC are in violation of the law — and may face fines and penalties or disciplinary action, including suspension of their license,” Gallegos said.
Hemp is a booming category of cannabis products. Congress legalized hemp products nationwide in 2018 via a reclassification of cannabis, which allowed hemp products to be sold outside of the heavily regulated legal weed market. The hemp market is now home to everything from non-intoxicating CBD tinctures recommended by medical doctors to highly intoxicating hemp drugs produced synthetically in unregulated drug labs. They are sold online and at corner stores across the country, and face almost no federal regulations.
California has been trying to regulate hemp for years, and Newsom’s September ban of hemp THC is the latest and most drastic action taken by the state. Whether it actually leads to a drastic change in the hemp market is a different question altogether.
Hemp THC products were widely sold at convenience stores and tobacco shops prior to Newsom’s ban, offering customers a way to buy intoxicating cannabis drugs without needing to find legal marijuana stores or pay cannabis taxes. In announcing the ban, Newsom called these sales “a disgrace and a shame” and said he was pursuing an emergency ban because the sales needed to be shut down immediately to protect children from accessing the drugs.
Nine days after the ban went into effect, SFGATE found the products still on sale at several stores.
SFGATE visited three tobacco stores and found hemp THC products for sale at all three. We purchased a Stiiizy Pineapple Express Delta-8-THC vape pen and a Chief Stix THCA Preroll at the Smoke Shop, located on Mission Street in Daly City. Two blocks away, we purchased a Stiiizy OG Kush Delta-8-THC vape pen and a pack of strawberry Delta-9-THC+CBN edibles made by Terpsey at the VIP Shop & Vape on Washington Street.
SFGATE also visited Mission Smoke Shop on Mission Street in San Francisco, where we purchased a pack of Blue Razz Terpsey Delta-9-THC edibles, which claimed to contain 120 milligrams of THC per package of 12 gummies. California’s recreational marijuana rules do not allow more than 100 milligrams of THC per package.
Newsom’s emergency rules ban the sale of any product that contains even trace amounts of THC, meaning all of these products appear to be violating the emergency ban. Neither Daly City smoke shop returned SFGATE’s request for comment regarding the sale of banned hemp THC products. A message left with Mission Smoke Shop in San Francisco also went unanswered.
A vape shop in Daly City where SFGATE purchased hemp THC despite a statewide ban.
A vape shop in Daly City where SFGATE purchased hemp THC despite a statewide ban.
A smoke shop in San Francisco where SFGATE purchased hemp THC despite a statewide ban.
A smoke shop in San Francisco where SFGATE purchased hemp THC despite a statewide ban.
Newsom’s office said in a September press release announcing the ban that local law enforcement would begin cracking down immediately. However, Daly City interim police Chief Cameron Christensen said in an email to SFGATE that his department has not received any funding to help enforce the ban, and that his department does not have the resources or equipment to test and investigate hemp products. That means that right now, their enforcement efforts are “minimal at best.”
“Without sufficient resources, training, equipment or support from state agencies specializing in this type of enforcement, our best option at this point is education to related shops,” Christensen said.
The San Francisco Police Department did not respond to a request for comment from SFGATE regarding continued hemp THC sales in the city. None of the manufacturers of the hemp THC products returned an SFGATE request for comment.
Unclear state enforcement
Newsom was flanked by the leaders of four state agencies when he announced his surprise emergency ban, projecting a powerful image of unified government intent on shutting down the sale of hemp THC. But his administration has offered few details on how these agencies are working together to enforce Newsom’s new prohibition.
The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration referred SFGATE’s enforcement questions to the California Department of Public Health, or CDPH, which did not return a request for comment.
Devin Blankenship, a spokesperson for the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, or ABC, said in an email that the agency is leading with an “education first” approach to enforcing the ban. He did say ABC-licensed businesses could face disciplinary action if they violate the new regulations.
David Hafner, a spokesperson for the Department of Cannabis Control, said in an email that the agency is enforcing the rules “as part of its broader enforcement strategy,” without providing any specific actions taken.
FILE - Scientist with mask and gloves checking and analyzing hemp plant,Indoors marijuana growing,Planting cannabis,Holding it in a hand.
FILE - Scientist with mask and gloves checking and analyzing hemp plant,Indoors marijuana growing,Planting cannabis,Holding it in a hand.
It’s also not clear whether the Newsom administration has provided any direct notifications to local government or affected business owners. Christensen, the Daly City police chief, told SFGATE he was not aware of any official notification from any state agency regarding the ban. Instead, Christensen said his department learned of it through “general media coverage and through private entities inquiring about the stores in our city possibly violating the regulations.”
An employee at the Mission Smoke Shop, who declined to give their name for fear of legal repercussions, told SFGATE that no one had notified the store that the hemp THC products were banned.
“We were not notified of that. … Usually they send us a letter and tell us they can’t sell these things,” the employee said.
Hemp THC drinks and other products have become a popular item at alcohol stores regulated by the ABC, but the agency’s own announcement on the new hemp rules was not updated promptly. The emergency ban went into effect on Sep. 24, yet for 10 days the page incorrectly stated that the ban was not yet in effect. The announcement page was finally updated on Oct. 3, the same day SFGATE reached out to the agency for this story, according to an archive version of the agency’s website.
A difficult problem
This isn’t the first time Sacramento has tried to tackle hemp THC.
Newsom signed a law in 2021 that explicitly banned the sale of any intoxicating hemp products outside of state-licensed cannabis stores, but CDPH has apparently never enforced that law’s provisions banning the sale of hemp THC. CDPH did not respond to an SFGATE question asking why it is not enforcing the existing law.
With hemp drugs still for sale across the state, Newsom attempted to get the legislature to pass a new law over the summer that would further clarify that it’s illegal to sell hemp THC outside of a state-licensed pot shop. The action appeared to be an attempt to get CDPH to enforce the existing 2021 law, but it failed to advance before the end of the legislative session. One of the chief concerns espoused by state agencies was that enforcing the proposed law would cost millions of dollars and could possibly increase crowding at county jails from people being imprisoned for violating it, according to a Senate analysis of the bill.
Left with the prospect of waiting an entire year till the new legislative session for lawmakers to ban hemp THC, Newsom took matters into his own hands, directing his CDPH to declare the sale of hemp THC an emergency and force an immediate ban on the sale of the drugs. That earned widespread praise in the public health community and the licensed cannabis industry, which sees the untaxed sale of hemp as a financial threat to its highly regulated and expensive products.
A sign in a Virginia hemp farm to dissuade thieves from stealing the plants, which look exactly like marijuana.
A sign in a Virginia hemp farm to dissuade thieves from stealing the plants, which look exactly like marijuana.
However, Newsom’s ban has driven some California families to the brink, as SFGATE previously reported. Medical cannabis patients who rely on hemp products were forced to “panic buy” thousands of dollars of product before the ban went into effect, and some are even considering leaving the state so they can purchase the items they need. Newsom’s emergency action was also immediately attacked by the hemp industry, with one hemp trade group arguing in a lawsuit that Newsom’s opposition to hemp THC products did not qualify as an emergency.
The continued widespread sale of hemp THC is far from surprising to Adam Terry, the owner of a hemp beverage company called Cantrip. He pointed to California’s thriving illicit marijuana industry, which is similarly banned across the state yet has persisted under Newsom’s administration.
“If they can’t shut down the illicit cannabis shops, how are they going to shut down the hemp being sold at corner stores? I don’t think they have a plan for that,” Terry told SFGATE last month.
Reached for comment after the ban went into effect, Terry said “it’s always nice to be right” but wasn’t happy overall as he has been forced to shut down sales of his product in California. “‘Vindicated, but depressed’ might be the best description of how I feel right now,” Terry said in an email.
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