Hemp retailers and growers in Tennessee have filed an 11th-hour legal challenge to halt impending rules that are expected to restrict all THCA products in the state.
The Tennessee Healthy Alternatives Association and Tennessee Growers Coalition last week filed complaints against the state’s Department of Agriculture, contending rules requiring hemp product testing conflict with a 2023 law regulating the products, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Under the new rules, which go into effect Dec. 26, the combined THC content of delta-9 and THCA products cannot exceed 0.3%.
That would prohibit the sale of flower containing THCA – the biosynthetic precursor to THC that’s converted when heated – because it wouldn’t pass regulatory testing.
Hemp, which is defined as having no more than 0.3% THC, is federally legal and regulated in Tennessee, but neither medical nor adult-use marijuana is legal in the state.
The legal hemp market in Tennessee is valued somewhere between $200 million and $580 million annually, according to local media reports.
The state Department of Agriculture has already rejected hemp industry appeals of the rules, according to the Tennessee Lookout.
The hemp groups are seeking an immediate preliminary injunction in Davidson County Chancery Court to prevent the rules from taking effect, the Lookout reported.
