The ABC Board approved emergency hemp rules at its Thursday meeting, which take effect in January.
The rules passed 2-1, with John Knight, a board member, opposing over process concerns. The rules were related to a law passed by state lawmakers in the previous session regulating what hemp products can be sold and creating new fines.
State Rep. Andy Whitt (R-Harvest), the hemp law's sponsor, told 1819 News he opposed the emergency rules.
"The legislation takes effect the first of January. The rules were published December 15 if my memory serves me correctly, and therefore I've seen emergency rules being used in the past, and that's really to circumvent the legislative process and what the legislators truly wanted," Whitt said. "I do want it to be known that I am supportive of ABC. I have a good working relationship with ABC and Mr. Stewart. We've worked well on this, and we've worked well on other projects. This doesn't reflect our relationship at all regarding ABC, but it did catch me off guard why we needed an emergency ruling on this so quickly into the process."
Whitt said, "Anytime that things are rushed and rushed through, there's errors made, there's unintended consequences, and there's also winners and losers. I want to make sure that we're not circumventing the system to do just that. I want to make sure that we're not trying to bypass the Legislature's decisions that they've made regarding HB445 and the intent of the Legislature."
ABC Board officials said at the Thursday meeting that the emergency rules were necessary to get rules on the books at the beginning of 2026.
The emergency rules will expire in April. The ABC Board is currently in the process of developing permanent rules for the hemp law.
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