The day after the hemp ban

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On the morning after the bill to reopen the federal government was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump, Mike Ballerini opens up his store—the 210 Double Vapes shop across the street from the Bexar County Courthouse. He unlocks the brightly painted door and allows his first customer of the day inside.

The name of the shop is playful. San Antonio’s area code is 210. Double that is 420—code for getting high with cannabis.

The days are numbered for this store and about 9,000 others in Texas that are registered with the Texas Department of State Health Services to sell consumable hemp products. That includes things like THC gummies, drinks, vape juice and other consumables.

Ballerini said all those businesses are going to die, adding he wasn’t surprised that much of his inventory will be illegal a year from now. “If all this stuff had been compliant to begin with, then we probably wouldn’t be in the situation that we’re in,” he said.

Ballerini is hitting on a key problem in Texas hemp shops. Many of the products do not meet the state’s legal requirements for hemp-derived cannabinoids. Non-compliant means the product breaks one or more Texas laws or regulations governing hemp, testing, labeling, or THC content.

On the wall there’s a sign that says, “Consume at your own risk.”

“So I have no sympathy for this industry at all. Should have followed the rules? Now we’re all crying ‘oh no my business is failing,’” said Ballerini.

Ballerini said he will be shutting down this store and turning his other hemp shop into a liquor store. But for others, switching businesses won’t be so easy. “It’s gonna be devastating,” he said.

Kenneth Berner is a commercial hemp grower and owns two smoke shops in Galveston County. He said he’s been following the rules. “We focus on all natural hemp products, we don’t try to bring in any of the other mess,” he said.

Berner said he’s invested time, hard work and his money into starting his business and now he’s watching it go up in smoke. “I don’t understand how we can legalize something, let everybody invest all their money into it, get up and running and … then just strip it away from them. I don’t know. I really don’t know what that’s going to do with us.”

Berner said the retail side of his business seems to be a lost cause but he’s not so sure about his hemp growing business.

“On a farm side, they keep saying they’re gonna protect the farmers,” he said. “So I’m not sure how that’s gonna affect us, but I do have a question I wish they’d answer. If you’re gonna protect me and allow me to grow it, that’s fantastic, but who am I gonna sell it to?”

Berner said he was caught completely by surprise by the sudden move by Washington D.C. to ban his products. He figured after the Texas ban was stopped, he would go all in on his business.

“So I expected that since we had fought these battles here, that was not gonna happen up there,” said Berner. “We had no idea that this was gonna be a backroom-in-the-dark kind of deal where we’d suspend all Senate rules so that we can add regulatory language that kills an entire industry. “

But Berner is more concerned about his customers who have come to rely on his products to deal with pain, anxiety, sleep issues and more. He said they don’t want to go back to taking pharmaceuticals.

“I would say nine out 10 people currently using legal hemp products where they are legal, are going to become criminals — and be buying it from the black market because they do not want to go back,” said Berner. They don’t feel they should have to. And I agree with them.”

The U.S. Hemp Roundtable has stated they will work during the one-year moratorium to push for a reversal or balanced, science-based regulations similar to those for alcohol, which would include age verification, testing, and licensing. Berner said he’s given up hope and doesn’t believe that Congress will be able to reverse the ban.