A federal appeals court has ruled that Arkansas can enforce a ban on certain synthetic marijuana products. A three-judge panel on the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the state of Arkansas can enforce Act 629 of 2023, a state law that bans products derived from hemp, which mirror the psychoactive effects of Cannibas.
The products are commonly known as Delta 8 and Delta 9 and are sold at convenience stories and smoke shops. As Little Rock Public Radio reports, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin says the issue stems from different interpretations of the 2018 Farm Bill which legalized hemp products nationwide. “The Farm Bill engages on the issue of hemp as a [sic] agricultural product. And what happened is a lot of these people wrongly, who opposed us, wrongly, they lost on this, they basically said, ‘well, because they mention hemp, all these hemp derivatives that’ll kill ya have, or they’ll make ya high, or whatever, they meant just to really just say states can deal with that. C’mon.”
Griffin says Arkansas residents selling hemp products will have three to five weeks to come into compliance with the law, before facing penalties. Griffin added, “If you are selling these products, you are now doing it in violation of the law.”
The attorney general also credited the work of State Representative Jimmy Gazaway and State Senator Tyler Dees, saying that “they championed this legislation to protect Arkansans, and it passed with overwhelming supermajorities in both the House and Senate.
Griffin also pointed to the support from Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She provided the following statement:
“Today’s win is a huge victory for the safety of every Arkansan – and especially our kids. Dangerous, unregulated synthetic marijuana products like Delta-8 have no place in our state, and today’s ruling allows our ban on them to go into effect. I’m thankful to Senator Dees and Representative Gazaway for passing this law and Attorney General Griffin and his team for vigorously defending it in federal court.”
