Sims operates Crowntown Cannabis shops, three in North Carolina and one in South Carolina, where weed is still illegal. According to the publication Queen City Nerve, the shops all sell a variety of products, including delta-9 THC and delta-8 THC. Delta-9 is the psychoactive compound in weed that gets users high. The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp across the country. According to the bill, anything with more than 0.3% delta-9 is considered illegal marijuana. Everything else is considered lawful hemp. In 2019, South Carolina passed its own hemp law, the Hemp Farming Act, which defined hemp similarly.
Specifically, the law defines hemp as “the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant, including the nonsterilized seeds thereof and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers, whether growing or not, with the federally defined THC level for hemp.” The federally defined THC level for hemp is 0.3% delta-9, the law says. This led Sims and others to believe they were in the clear to sell something called delta-8, another, less potent form of THC.
Nonetheless, Columbia, South Carolina, police and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division barged into one of Sims’ shops and took what they “perceived to be marijuana.” Sims and his team dispute this. They say all they sell is lawful hemp.
The cops were there to enforce a 2021 legal opinion from the state attorney general’s office that deemed delta-8 illegal. The opinion essentially says that the federal and state hemp laws were only meant to legalize delta-9 at low levels, not to legalize other forms of THC. “It does not create an express exception for delta-8 or any other THC isomer,” the opinion reads.
Sims was understandably upset about the raid on his business.
“This is not in the public interest,” Sims told Queen City Nerve. “The public is pretty angry and upset anytime these arrests are made for cannabis. The constituents out there, over 90% of America in most polls, want some legal access to cannabis, and since 2018, I felt like we were moving forward towards ... legalization. But really, specifically in 2023, I feel like we’re heading in reverse.”
As of this month, the website for Sims’ business is still operational, but his story exemplifies the confusion over state and federal hemp laws across the country.
A similar story can be found in Kansas, where, as in Texas, weed is illegal. According to NBC affiliate KSNT, multiple hemp shops were raided by the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office in April last year in search of delta-8, delta-9 and delta-10. Delta-10 is another form of THC that is said to produce a more energetic high. The owner of two CBD American Shaman locations in the area told the news station that police seized around $20,000 worth of product. CBD American Shaman also has locations in North Texas.“This is not in the public interest." – Michael Sims, Crowntown Cannabis
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The police in Kansas also raided a shop called CBD Sacred Leaf, taking about 80% of its product. The owner of the store said this equates to about $10,000–$15,000.
This came just months after a December 2021 opinion from the Kansas Attorney General’s Office stating that Delta-8 is a Schedule I controlled substance and is unlawful to possess or sell in the state. The opinion laid out two exceptions, however. It said delta-8 would be legal when it is made from industrial hemp, and if it didn't exceed 0.3% total THC (that means delta-8, delta-9, delta-whatever all combined can’t exceed 0.3%.)
The Kansas police did not issue any citations or make any arrests as part of the raid.
Michael DeAngelo in Pennsylvania wasn’t so lucky. He spoke out to NBC affiliate WTAJ in August after his shop, Our CBD Hollidaysburg, was raided, leading to his arrest. According to the news station, several laws in the state legalized all derivatives, cannabinoids and isomers of hemp, except for delta-9, which can’t exceed 0.3%. State police said they couldn’t comment on any ongoing investigation but pointed to three state laws that mention THC being illegal. None of those laws, however, mention the substance coming from hemp, according to the station. The police confiscated nearly all of DeAngelo’s product, only leaving behind delta-8 flower and CBD.
Despite recommendations by police to shut it down, DeAngelo said he was keeping his shop open. However, he worries that if he doesn’t get his product back, he’ll be forced to close.
In Ohio, where weed was just legalized in November, a law enforcement task force raided four smoke shops last April, claiming they were selling products that illegally contained THC and hashish, a concentrated form of cannabis. Three were part of a chain of shops called VIP Smoke Shop.
According to the Dayton Daily News, police seized vape cartridges they suspected contained illegal THC, as well as invoices, bank records, duplicate checks and ledgers. Jeff Cornwell, the attorney for VIP Smoke Shops, told the publication that the seized products “are the same products that are sold on the shelves of every other gas station store that sells hemp-derived products.”
He added, “They have violated no law.”
So far, no one has been arrested or charged as part of the Ohio raids.
All of these stories mirror raids on North Texas hemp shops this year. One raid got national attention in The Washington Post, which is fitting considering the feds were involved. Similar to other states, Texas has a pretty sweeping definition of hemp that some argue makes substances like delta-8 legal. Needless to say, exactly what kind of hemp products are legal in Texas sometimes seems to be up for interpretation. But that didn’t stop the police from raiding a shop in Garland and arresting two employees.
On June 7, the Garland Police Department, alongside a Drug Enforcement Administration task force, searched the local shop bee Hippy Hemp Dispensary. The cops seized all of the store’s product and arrested the owner and a longtime employee — Christopher Charles Fagan and David Lee Dranguet — for allegedly selling products with too much THC. Fagan says he and Dranguet are innocent.
“It has become blatantly obvious that they're attempting to shut our business down and completely destroy our reputation,” Fagan told the Observer at the time. “Everything we sell is legal and compliant hemp, and we have the certificates of analysis [lab tests] to prove the delta-9 THC potency is within legal limits and was derived from Farm Bill compliant hemp.”
