Hemp, THC products face uncertain legal future

This is Fox 9 News at 6 30. Thanks so much for joining us here at 6 30. It's great to be with you. I'm Simone Bullridge. A looming federal deadline for legal hemp drinks and edibles is already doing damage to the 200 million dollar a year hemp industry in Minnesota. But there is a silver lining for some retailers. Fox 9's Corinne Hoggard shows us why Minnesota-based liquor stores are positioned to push through. The production line is still abuzz at Nothing But Hemp headquarters, but it's not business as usual. As things stand, the federal government will start banning almost all hemp-derived THC products after December 11th. A lot of the small businesses have dropped off just because of the uncertainty. Liquor stores are buying a lot less product at a time. Before, when we used to sell five or six cases to an individual liquor store, they might be only purchasing one or two. Some have completely got rid of the category altogether. The shelves at some liquor stores are starting to have blank spaces where THC would be, and the scheduled federal ban has started eating up space. But a lot of the stores based in Minnesota, including Top Ten Liquors, are still planning to sell hemp drinks after the federal ban. We will be in the category on December 12th. We plan to stay in the category. We have to tweak some things within our business model. If it's not federally legal, we'll no longer be able to take credit cards. It's big business at Top Ten. We literally have three sections and a lot of cooler space dedicated to THC. And while a federal ban complicates things, state law lets them keep THC on the shelves. But several hemp THC businesses are folding or shifting to cannabis. Nothing but hemp CEO Stephen Brown says he's laid off some of his staff. He says he'll go down with the hemp ship if it sinks, but he's changed the company's name to Nothing But Canna because he's planning for cannabis to be his life raft. I never planned to do this. This is our insurance plan. Brown has also lobbied Congress to put guardrails on hemp THC but keep it legal for anyone over the age of 21. In the meantime, though, this whole uncertainty is causing the kind of stress that he says might lead someone to reach for a gummy. In Minneapolis, Corinne Hoggard, Fox 9.