ST. LOUIS — A vendor advertising “home-grown†delta-8 cannabis products Saturday at Soulard Market will not be allowed to return until the city can learn more about what was being sold, officials said Wednesday.
Greg Hayes, director of St. ÑÇÖÞÎÞÂë’ parks department, said he made the decision Tuesday not to allow the vendor to return after seeing photos of the stall that showed an “uncertainty†of what was being sold last weekend. The parks department oversees the city-owned farmers market.
The vendor told the city it was going to sell CBD products. It did not say it was going to sell delta-8 products, Hayes said.
Benny Asta, the vendor, told the Post-Dispatch on Wednesday that his product was “totally legal.â€
Both CBD and delta-8 are made from hemp, a botanical cousin to marijuana, and are legal in the United States. Retailers and customers say these products are used to help with sleep and ease pain, not to get high.
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Industry boosters say the incident raises concerns over a lack of state and federal consumer protections in the hemp industry.
“That, for us as a state, causes undue harm and risk,†said Tyler Morgan, president and chairman of the Missouri Hemp Trade Association. “We can’t have an industry that doesn’t have a focus on consumer protection.â€
The 2018 federal farm bill allows for the production and sale of hemp products, though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has yet to evaluate or approve delta-8 or CBD products.
Cannabis is legally defined as hemp if it contains 0.3% or less of THC, the compound that’s associated with the “high†of marijuana products. Cannabis that contains more than 0.3% is considered marijuana.
Laws are mixed across the U.S.
The district attorney in Kansas’ Johnson County, which sits on the border with Missouri, ordered businesses to stop selling delta-8 products by March 20 after the state attorney general issued an opinion last year that determined delta-8 is a Schedule 1 controlled substance and unlawful to possess or sell to in Kansas.
Even in Washington state, which was one of the first states to legalize recreational marijuana, officials have barred the sale of delta-8 products.
Marijuana is legal in Missouri only for medicinal use, though efforts are underway to legalize recreational use.
But unlike medical marijuana, which is overseen by the state’s Department of Health & Human Services, hemp falls under the Missouri Department of Agriculture.
Growers and sellers must be registered and have permits. Hemp crops have to be tested to ensure they contain 0.3% or less THC.
Hayes said his department consulted with the city counselor’s office to ensure compliance with state law prior to approving the vendor, whom he did not name, to sell CBD in October. Hayes described the vendor as a “sporadic†seller who usually came to the market on some Saturdays. It is unclear whether the vendor has previously sold buds at the market.
At Soulard Market on March 19, handwritten signs that said “Home-grown delta-8†and “Jumbo Buds $100†hung over four black, 19-gallon Sterilite storage tubs filled with buds.
No other information, including where the product was grown, was posted. Asta and another man packaged customers’ orders in plastic zip-close bags.
Asta declined to be interviewed Saturday but told a reporter then that their fields are in Washington, Missouri. He provided a business card that said “VE CBD,†which said it is a CBD “grower & main supplier.†Asta was listed as owner on the card.
On Wednesday, he said he was selling a strain of “CBD†from a company called Healthy Hemp, which he said is based in Jefferson City. Asta said Healthy Hemp is registered with the state Department of Agriculture. He said VE CBD was a name he used to register with the city to operate at Soulard Market.
He declined to identify the owner of Healthy Hemp.
Asta said the tubs at the market contained hemp with delta-8, which he likened to flavoring barbecue with hickory smoke. He said the delta-8 sign was there “as a spark†to entice customers.
“We are trying to do the right thing, but this went viral,†Asta said.
The state agriculture department had no records of registrations or permits for either Benny Asta or VE CBD. A list of companies registered to grow hemp in Franklin County, where Washington is situated, did not have a record of VE CBD. The state of Missouri also had no business incorporation documents for VE CBD.
Morgan, of the trade association, described photos of the Soulard Market stall he viewed as upsetting. The vendor, he said, did not appear to follow the industry’s best practices, which includes labeling and age warnings. His group is advocating for established guidelines and says it has a strong coalition of legislators behind it.
Morgan said the state’s hemp industry generates “in excess of $30 million a month.â€
“Missouri is in a unique position to have one of the most vibrant and dynamic hemp industries in the entire country,†Morgan said. “But we also have to take responsibility and make sure that stuff like that doesn’t happen.â€