State health regulators walked into the busy Prime Fuel gas station in Sedalia on Tuesday morning and asked the clerk if there were any intoxicating hemp-derived THC edibles in the store—products the governor banned as of September 1.
The two employees of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) learned the store had already taken the products off the shelves, according to the regulators’ report on the visit, and they were being stored in a box in the office.
The report says regulators called the owner and he voluntarily agreed to destroy the products.
But that’s not how the owner describes the incident, said Craig Katz, spokesman for the Missouri Hemp Trade Association.
“He seemed to be forced into it,” Katz said.
Katz said the owner had boxed up the products so he could return them to the wholesaler for a refund, and he explained this to the regulators. Instead, they told him his manager had to pour bleach over about $5,000 worth of product, Katz said, a process that took two hours.
On Wednesday, the Missouri Hemp Trade Association’s attorney Chuck Hatfield sent a letter to the department’s general counsel saying the regulators deprived the owner of his right to tell his side of the story to a judge.
“The law is extremely clear that DHSS is not authorized to destroy product, or to demand that others do so, without a court order,” Hatfield wrote.
State regulators had visited 44 establishments as of 4 p.m. Thursday to inspect for the banned products, said Lisa Cox, spokesperson for the department.
Of the 44 facilities, regulators found “unregulated psychoactive cannabis products” during inspections at 23 of them, Cox said.
“Four facilities have refused to embargo or discard products,” she said. “The remaining facilities agreed to embargo and/or discard products. At this time, we have taken no court action.”
Cox declined comment on Hatfield’s letter.
Hellbound and Down 