Florida’s Attorney General Supports Federal Recriminalization Of Hemp THC Products

Federal hemp THC product ban: Florida’s top cop sharpens the knives

There’s nothing polite about a federal hemp THC product ban. It’s a cleaver, not a scalpel, and Florida’s attorney general just said he’s fine with the cut. In Tampa, James Uthmeier backed the nationwide move Congress tucked into the government funding deal—a cap of 0.4 milligrams of total delta-9 THC per container for hemp-derived goods. That’s not a safety warning; it’s a stop sign for the gas-station Delta-8 gummies and the corner-store “compliantly euphoric” seltzers that colonized American strip malls. The ban lands late next year. If you’re a manufacturer, distributor, or the guy who swears these gummies “take the edge off without the hangover,” the clock just started ticking. This isn’t abstract cannabis policy reform chatter. It’s the Michigan-of-the-mind moment for Florida and beyond: a rulebook rewrite that will reshape inventory, margins, and the quiet economy of impulse purchases at checkout counters.

Uthmeier didn’t join the 39 state attorneys general who urged Congress to outlaw intoxicating hemp products. He said he wanted more time to read the fine print, to figure out the best way to regulate. Fair enough. But listen to him now and the vibe is clear: a full overhaul was needed, and his office will make sure “illegal products” disappear from shelves. Florida tried to go first—lawmakers pushed a 2024 bill to ban Delta-8 and slap hard THC limits on hemp-derived products. The governor vetoed it. This year’s sequel fizzled. This is how policy sausage gets made in the American South: messy, loud, and served with a side of cultural panic. Meanwhile, the federal government set the table on its own. The political backstory is as swampy as you’d expect; insiders say hardliners muscled the White House into the crackdown, a point underscored in GOP Lawmakers ‘Forced’ Trump Into Signing Hemp Ban, Longtime Ally Roger Stone Says. Whether that’s bravado or brass tacks, the outcome’s the same: a sweeping federal line in the sand that lurches faster than most states can write rules.

“Our team is looking in on that and we’re going to make sure that we’re getting illegal products off the market.”

Here’s what the scoreboard looks like right now:

• The federal cap is 0.4 mg of total delta-9 THC per container for hemp-derived products, a practical ban on most intoxicating goods.
• Effective date: late next year—enough time to pivot, not enough to coast.
• 39 attorneys general asked Congress to act; Florida’s AG didn’t sign, but says he supports a full overhaul now.
• Florida’s 2024 hemp clampdown was vetoed; the 2025 follow-up failed to pass.
• Separate but adjacent: state and federal pressure is mounting on 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), a kratom alkaloid.

About that 7-OH. Uthmeier issued an emergency rule to classify it as a controlled substance in Florida, making concentrated 7-OH illegal to sell, possess, or distribute. The agriculture department then yanked 17,113 packages from store shelves across more than 20 counties, a quiet purge that tells you how deeply this stuff had infiltrated everyday retail. His office says they’ve measured products 13 times more potent than morphine, sitting next to candy at eye level for kids and late-shift workers. Grim, and not hyperbolic. At the federal level, health officials recommended DEA place 7-OH in Schedule I—high abuse potential, no accepted medical use—while clarifying that kratom leaves and standard powders with naturally occurring amounts aren’t the target. These are parallel tracks: hemp-derived intoxicants on one side, kratom derivatives on the other. But the cultural weather is the same—regulators sprinting after a market that moves like a street vendor with a backpack full of new labels.

For Florida’s hemp industry, the ban is an existential audit. Manufacturers will reformulate. Distributors will eat shrink on stranded stock. Retailers will gamble on what survives—the CBDs, the edge-case terpene tinctures, the non-intoxicating “functional” drinks. Consumers will migrate, because they always do, to whatever still makes them feel something within the lines. Across the Southeast, the ripple is real; just ask the businesses already bracing for impact up the coast in North Carolina Hemp Businesses Brace For Impact Of New Federal THC Product Ban. And yet, in the bigger legal panorama, nothing is ever simple. The federal posture on cannabis is still a kaleidoscope of mixed signals—remember, Trump DOJ Declines To File Supreme Court Brief In Marijuana Companies’ Case Challenging Federal Prohibition, even as Washington grinds forward and backward on reform and enforcement. That’s the problem with half-legal America: enforcement is a mood, not a map. So we get bans by budget rider, emergency rules by press conference, and a marketplace that looks different every time you blink.

There’s a world where this federal hemp-derived THC crackdown becomes catalyst, not cudgel. If Congress insists on shutting the valve for intoxicating hemp, then the honest move is to legalize and regulate cannabis across the board—tax it, test it, and stop pretending the headshop aisle is an acceptable substitute for a coherent policy. The argument’s already on the table in The New Federal Hemp Ban Is An Opportunity To Legalize Cannabis Across The Board (Op-Ed). Florida’s AG may be right that the current patchwork is untenable; where we go from here will tell us whether this was a clean-up or a crack-down. In the meantime, if you’re navigating this shifting terrain and prefer your choices tested, transparent, and lawful, step into our house and explore what’s compliant and consistent today: https://thcaorder.com/shop/.