Legislation banning delta-8 THC has been approved by the Florida Legislature and sent to Governor Ron DeSantis.
Hemp, which is used to extract delta-8 THC.
Florida’s Senate gave final approval to Senate Bill 1698 yesterday in a unanimous 39 to 0 vote. The vote came soon after the House of Representatives passed the bill in a much more contentious vote, 64 to 48.
If signed into law by Governor DeSantis or allowed to become law without his signature, the bill would completely ban the sale of delta-8 THC, which is derived from hemp. Hemp was legalized under the 2018 farm bill.
Delta-8 THC interacts with the body in a way similar to marijuana-derived delta-9 THC, despite the latter being illegal for recreational use in Florida. This has led some lawmakers to consider it a loophole, allowing consumers to legally get a marijuana-like high.
The bill also “modifies the definition of “attractive to children” to include containers displaying toys, novel shapes, animations, promotional characters, licensed characters, or other features that specifically target children, or, for hemp extracted intended for inhalation, the addition of any flavoring”, and it places THC caps on hemp products of 5 milligrams per serving, and 50 milligrams per container (initially these numbers were set at 2 and 10, but were amended before final passage).
If the measure is enacted into law, Florida would become the 18th state to ban delta-8 THC.
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