The State of Georgia recently enacted laws to create a regulatory framework around the manufacturing, purchase, and sale of consumable hemp products. The new state laws clarify that businesses are permitted to sell, and consumers may purchase, “consumable hemp products” except for hemp-infused food products, creates a new standard for testing Delta-9 THC products, and requiring licenses for manufacturers, wholesalers, growers, and retailers of consumable hemp.
Following the State’s recent regulation of consumable hemp products, the City of Milton recently enacted zoning amendments to prohibit the sale of these products within the City. According to the executive summary of the legislation, the City is “concerned with proliferation of the sale of consumable hemp products” and “the City finds that the hazards occasioned by the selling of these products constitutes an emergency.”
Despite the recent state laws clarifying the legality and regulating these products, the City of Milton, according to its legislation, “desires to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the impact on the health, safety and welfare of its citizens by retailers, vendors, and other businesses selling consumable hemp products.”
Milton enacted legislation that creates new definitions for “Retail Consumable Hemp Products” and “Unregulated Marijuana Substitutes Retail Shop” and prohibits these uses in all parts of the City. According to one media report, the City’s chief of police “spearheaded the move to keep the businesses out” and the “intent is to prevent new businesses of this kind within City limits.”