ANNA MARIA – Businesses in the city that currently sell CBD and hemp products will be allowed to continue doing so with a soon-to-be-adopted grandfathering exception.
A city ordinance adopted in 2015 to prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries also prohibits the sale of any product made from the cannabis plant, including CBD and hemp products – even though Florida law allows CBD and hemp sales.
Anna Maria leaders want to allow limited CBD and hemp sales without allowing full-blown CBD stores like those legally operated in Holmes Beach and many other Florida cities.
On April 11, City Attorney Becky Vose presented newly-proposed Ordinance 24-293, which contains the following language: “Businesses with a business location in the city of Anna Maria – not to include mobile sales – that, as of April 1, 2024, regularly sold product that would otherwise have been prohibited shall be eligible to receive grandfather status to continue such sales, but not to increase the volume of such sales, in accordance with procedures outlined in a resolution to be adopted by the city commission.”
To receive grandfathered status, businesses that currently sell CBD and/or hemp products will have to register those business activities with the city.
The city’s efforts to revise its CBD and hemp prohibitions began in February after Holmes Beach-based CBD vendor Mel Wendell was told she couldn’t participate in an arts and crafts fair taking place in Anna Maria.
The North Shore Café owners then received a notice of violation for selling food and drink products made with a legal hemp powder containing trace amounts of THC. The Cool Beans AMI coffee shop owners received a notice of violation for selling CBD products. Those two businesses will be eligible for city commission-approved grandfathering exemptions.
When offering public input during the April 11 meeting, AMI Beach & Dog Supply owner Janalee Gallagher informed city officials that canine-grade CBD products are currently sold at her Anna Maria business. Gallagher was told she would also be eligible for the grandfathering exception.
The proposed ordinance has not been formally adopted yet and the accompanying city resolution that establishes the specific grandfathering rules and requirements is expected to be presented soon.
The commission previously rejected a proposed ordinance that would have limited CBD and hemp offerings to no more than 10% of a retail establishment’s total inventory. The commission felt the 10% threshold would be nearly impossible to enforce and would require an audit of the retailer’s entire inventory.
STATE LEGISLATION
Anna Maria’s efforts to amend its CBD regulations occur at a time when stricter CBD regulations proposed by the Florida Legislature await transmittal to Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto, sign into new state law or allow to become state law without his signature.
On April 9, Vose sent the mayor and commissioners a copy of SB 1698 and a brief summary of the proposed state law that said: “It basically prohibits the sale of hemp-based products that create euphoric effects on people by putting caps on the amount of THC concentration in hemp-based products that can be sold. The publicity surrounding the bill seems to indicate that it will prohibit a large percentage of the products sold in CBD stores.”
The ordinance Vose presented on April 11 says, “Nothing in this ordinance shall be construed to allow the sale of any product which is otherwise prohibited by Florida law.”
On April 11, Vose also noted legalizing recreational marijuana statewide will be on the general election ballot this fall.
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