In 2019, Diane Moore founded A Moore Healthy Life in Clanton, Alabama—a store initially focused on selling CBD oil products. The store faced struggles early on as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Moore was able to weather the storm and keep her business alive. As more hemp-based products became available on the market, Moore grew the business, selling everything from smokable hemp and edible gummies to CBD oils and tinctures.
However, Moore’s ambitions as a small business owner came to an abrupt end this summer with the Alabama state Legislature’s passage of House Bill 445.
Signed into law by Governor Kay Ivey in May, despite outcry from industry experts and advocates, HB445 places severe new restrictions on the sale of hemp and CBD products in Alabama. In addition to an outright ban on smokable products and online direct-to-consumer sales, the new law also places limits on the amount of THC allowed in consumable products and institutes new packaging restrictions.
When those new regulations went into effect on July 1 of this year, Moore knew immediately they would put her out of business.
“[We felt the impact] immediately, we could no longer sell the products we had, we could no longer sell anything that we had. Basically, there was just a couple of products that might have still been considered legal,” Moore told APR in a recent phone interview.
Moore added that the quick turnaround between HB445’s passage and the bill’s effective date of July 1 not only caused confusion for retailers like herself, but also made it impossible for her to make any timely changes that could have kept her doors open.
“We understood it to be that we had until January the 1st, but then we were told that everything had to be done and off the shelves by July 1… our rent was paid through the end of July, and so on August 1 we had to be out because we couldn’t pay the rent,” Moore explained.
For Moore, closing the store not only meant losing her business, but losing her home as well.
Moore told APR that she moved into the back of her store in 2022 after a change in her living situation. Her son also began living and working with her in the store after he became severely ill in 2023, and now both are homeless.
“My son—who is 36—in February of 2023, he got deathly ill. Several trips to the emergency room, he lost his job, he lost his insurance coverage and everything, and he moved into the back of the shop with me and he was helping me run the shop,” Moore said. “And basically we were just doing our thing, barely making ends meet, keeping the bills paid, trying to keep our doors open. And then this bill put us out of business. Now in our case, it also made us homeless, because we can’t pay the rent there now. So now we no longer have a place to live, we are staying with family now.”
Beyond her own personal situation, Moore also expressed sadness about losing what she saw as a way to truly help people through her business and the products on her shelves.
“I educated people about what cannabis is and what cannabis does, and how you can use it. Not everyone needs cannabis, a lot of people are doing just fine, but we do have a whole body system called the endocannabinoid system, and it runs on cannabinoids,” Moore said.
“I’ve helped so many people. I’ve helped elderly people, I’ve helped people who are trying to get off of other kinds of drugs… just helped so many people in so many different ways.”
“I would ask [my customers], ‘what are the issues you’re trying to solve here? What is it you’re trying to accomplish?’ And we would just discuss the whole entire situation and figure out what was going to help them achieve what they needed to achieve—whether it’s a good night’s sleep, or aches and pains, or anxiety,” she added.
Moore told APR that she does not see a path to reopening A Moore Healthy Life and that—despite her passion for helping others through CBD and hemp products—she would be scared to work in the cannabis industry in Alabama in any capacity going forward.
“I don’t have any hopes to reopen because I don’t know what the law is going to do in the future. Now, I’d be afraid to even get a job as a sales person working for a company in that [industry]. I want to though, I mean I still want to promote cannabis, and I will still talk to people and tell them, you know, how it’s not evil, it’s really not evil. It’s very beneficial for some people, the ones who need it,” Moore said.
APR asked what Moore would say to the lawmakers who passed HB445 if given the opportunity.
“They just don’t understand how helpful cannabis is and how it has helped so many people with so many things and done zero damage to anyone. It isn’t going to destroy your heart, your lungs, your liver, your kidneys, the lining of your stomach… I just feel like the reason that it’s being outlawed is not for the benefit of small children, it’s to put small businesses out of business,” Moore replied.
“I feel like if the people that made the laws really, really understood how beneficial it is and how it doesn’t cause any harm, I don’t see how they could refrain from letting people use it,” she added.
Moore also expressed that she believes hemp products should be treated in a similar fashion to alcohol: that they should be made available to the public, and that only those who abuse the products and use them irresponsibly should face legal repercussions.
“It just breaks my heart that people aren’t allowed to use [cannabis] when I feel like God gave it to everyone. I think it should be like alcohol: it should be legal, it should be free to anyone who wants to use it, but you should use it wisely and obey society’s rules and regulations,” she stated.
