That’s why he created American Hemp Growers and is partnering with others around the country to stop the bill or get the language in it changed. While tackling this bill is their main focus, Maxwell told the“I feel American Hemp Growers will be a strong advocate for smokable flower farmers, manufacturers, distributors and processors of delta-8 and other isomers, [as well as] mom-and-pop retailers and customers that depend on these products financially and medically,” he said.
While delta-8 and other isomers can be found naturally in the hemp plant, there usually isn’t enough to feel their effects. So, companies have been manufacturing products with higher potencies by extracting CBD from hemp and converting that CBD into THC isomers like delta-8. Businesses assumed they could manufacture and sell these products because federal and subsequent state laws surrounding hemp only mentioned restrictions on delta-9.
“Our position is that delta-8 and other isomers should be regulated responsibly as adult-use products,” Maxwell said. “Smokable hemp flower should not be restricted in any capacity than it already is.” While the bill would overly restrict the hemp industry in its current form, according to Maxwell, it would also bring some welcomed changes. For example, hemp companies wouldn’t be restricted to labs registered with the Drug Enforcement Agency for their testing under the new bill. It would also open up hemp programs to people with prior drug-related felonies., it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Dallas, and we'd like to keep it that way.