Montgomery Circuit Judge James Anderson denied a request Monday from four hemp companies seeking to temporarily halt a new law criminalizing the sale of smokable hemp products.
As part of the ruling, Anderson said that House Bill 445 does not “impede or prohibit interstate shipping of hemp products.”
What exactly can be shipped made the bulk of the arguments in a hearing before Anderson on Monday.
The Attorney General’s office said it did not consider shipping of hemp for sale outside the state to violate the law despite its criminalization of “possession.” But the office said it would be a problem if hemp were processed in the state into a smokable product.
Attorneys representing the four plaintiff hemp companies argued that under Alabama’s licensing law, hemp cultivators in the state should be allowed to process the material into products so long as they were being produced to be sold out of state.
The debate fell into an analogy about transporting cotton versus shipping it as a “t-shirt.” Anderson said the law would not apply to cotton but would become a problem if it had been made into a t-shirt.
Plaintiffs argued that the new law specifically says that it should not “impede or affect” the framework established when Alabama opted in to the legalization of hemp six years ago, and therefore licensees should be able to continue processing hemp into any previously legal form.
Anderson clarified during the hearing that “smokable” does not extend to products that are not intended to be smokable, such as hemp soap, despite the fact that someone might be able to manipulate it to be smoked.
The denial means the law takes effect today, making the possession of smokable hemp products for sale a Class C Felony.
