Sales of products containing intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids may resume in Missouri after a top state official indicated a change in enforcement priorities.
That move defies an order from Missouri Gov. Mike Parson that led the Department of Health & Senior Services (DHSS) to use state food law as the legal basis for a wide-ranging embargo on intoxicating hemp products.
Parson issued the order after Missouri’s secretary of state Jay Ashcroft rejected the governor’s ban of intoxicating hemp-derived products in an Aug. 1 executive order.
But that embargo is now over, the DHSS’ general counsel, Richard Moore, wrote in a Sept. 17 letter to the Missouri Hemp Trade Association, the Columbia Missourian reported.
According to Moore, Missouri regulators now will focus their attention on “misbranded” products, with any goods embargoed to date to be released within a month.
Moore’s letter spurred by seemed to indicate that only products making medical claims would risk enforcement.
Authorities “will aim to identify products that may violate the Merchandising Practices Act,” his letter noted.
“All psychoactive cannabis products that the Department has tagged as an embargoed product … since August 1, 2024, will be referred to the Attorney General’s Office for evaluation of Missouri Merchandising Practices Act violations,” the letter continued.
“The Department has no intention at this time to embargo additional psychoactive cannabis products as adulterated.
“Pending further action from the General Assembly as to intoxicating cannabis products, the Department believes that channeling future enforcement authority via the Merchandising Practices Act is the best way to ensure that Missouri consumers know what they are purchasing and ingesting, and to keep harmful products out of the hands of children.”
The policy reversal stemmed from the Missouri Hemp Trade Association’s Sept. 16 filing for a temporary restraining order against the DHSS, the Missourian reported.
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