Missouri bill banning intoxicating hemp nears law, threatening dozens of KC shops
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Missouri redefines hemp to ban any THC variant over 0.3% statewide.
- Bill passed with bipartisan support after amendments on union rights and consumer data.
- Hemp businesses warn mass closures; licensed dispensaries gain market advantage.
Missouri lawmakers passed a bill criminalizing “intoxicating hemp,” potentially dooming an industry that for years thrived in a gray market.
In Kansas City, there are dozens of stores selling hemp products that fall outside the federal definition of marijuana. Intoxicating hemp sidesteps being labelled as marijuana by relying on alternate psychoactive chemicals like Delta-8 THC or THCa, rather than the Delta-9 THC found in marijuana.
The Missouri bill, which received final passage on Thursday, modifies the definition of “hemp” to prohibit more than three-tenths of one percent of any variant of THC. The language, and timeline for implementation, mirrors federal legislation that is set to take effect on November 12.
Rep. Dave Hinman, a St. Charles Republican, who introduced the bill, said it brings Missouri law in line with the federal government. House Speaker Jon Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, said the bill will ensure intoxicating hemp will go through Missouri’s regulatory framework.
“If you’re getting marijuana in Missouri, it’s going to be through the licensed dispensaries that are regulated,” Patterson told The Star. “You won’t have these intoxicating cannabinoid products being sold to kids at gas stations where it looks like it’s packaged candy.”
The bill passed both chambers with bipartisan majorities. It received some friction in the Senate, where a Senate version endured a nine-hour-long filibuster. It only passed after Hinman’s bill was amended to allow cannabis workers to unionize and prohibited dispensaries from collecting consumer information without notice.
But unlike the federal legislation on hemp, the bill would allow licensed marijuana shops to continue selling hemp with THCa. Marijuana remains illegal federally.
Hemp vs marijuana
The hemp industry and the licensed marijuana industry have been in a bitter battle. Licensed marijuana group, MoCannTrade, characterizes the hemp industry as rogue actors selling adulterated products, while hemp producers call MoCannTrade a monopoly using its influence to edge out competition.
MoCannTradae celebrated the bill’s passage and urged Gov. Mike Kehoe to sign the bill into law.
“Law enforcement has long wanted these untested, untaxed, unlicensed, intoxicating products off the shelves,” Andrew Mullins, MoCnnTrade executive director, said in a statement. “This public safety legislation aligns Missouri law with the new federal law banning these products and providing a crystal clear bright line between what is legitimate hemp and what is, in fact, marijuana.”
Meanwhile, hemp businesses are bracing for the complete eradication of their industry. Last week, a lobbyist representing the hemp industry said that the federal legislation would take out the vast majority of current hemp businesses.
“Probably 95% of the current hemp industry will go out of business, because there’s no way they can comply with the way the redefinition of hemp has been codified in the recent legislation,” said Craig Katz, a lobbyist for a trade association for hemp stores.
Some hemp businesses have been asking for regulation, albeit looser ones than those Missouri voters approved in a 2022 ballot measure. In September, hemp businesses collected signatures to repeal the constitutional amendment that legalized recreational marijuana and replace it with regulations that are no more burdensome than regulations for alcohol and tobacco.
Tim Gilio, the Belton-based founder of the Missouri Marijuana Legalization Movement, was involved in the effort, but said he saw the writing on the wall on hemp months ago.
“I got out of this intentionally just because I’d seen that MoCannTrade was always going to be on top of this and it was always going to be the handful of the rich elite that were going to take control of everything,” Gilio said.
MOHempTrade, a trade association representing Missouri hemp businesses, is urging people to contact the Governor’s office to plead for a veto.
“I’m definitely going to rally. I’m rallying every business owner, consumer that I can, and we’re going to try to get the Governor to veto this,” said Jamie Turner, an owner of two southeast Missouri hemp stores.
But Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe could be hard to convince on the issue. In his State of the State speech in January, he said he’d work to keep “dangerous drugs and substances out of the hands of children.”
“That includes unregulated products like intoxicating hemp, kratom, and 7-OH,” Kehoe said at the time.
This story was originally published April 6, 2026 at 3:56 PM.
