Consumable THC explodes in Louisiana, becoming $33M industry. Lawmakers may crack down.

On Baton Rouge’s bustling Government Street, rainbow-painted brick and warmly lit windows beckon passersby into a room filled with neat rows of packets, jars and cans — products shrouded in muted blues, greens and yellows that tease mind-altering properties.

A neon sign inside Rad Dad Alternative, a new venture hawking THC and CBD products in the heart of the Mid City area, preaches the ethos behind those products: “Feel better.”

“A lot of people come in looking for focus,” said Kate Ruggles, the shop’s director of wellness. “Parents come in looking to unwind. … Grandparents come in, aunts, uncles — and lots of people who have never tried it.”

Technically, marijuana remains illegal in Louisiana for recreational use. But people who want to feel a high have a wide array of legal options: sellers of consumable THC-infused seltzers, gummies and extracts sprang up all over the state in the past several years — 1,504 of them, from Shreveport to Morgan City, according to state records. They include big supermarkets such as Rouses, gas station convenience stores and boutiques, like Rad Dad.

Just as swiftly as consumable hemp has grown into a $33 million industry in Louisiana, so too could it disappear.

Some of the same state lawmakers who opened the doors for sales of THC-infused products starting in 2019 are now trying to shut them again through legislation moving through the state Capitol. Two bills — one of which proposes a total ban on the products, the other a gentler regulatory approach — are part of a lurching, two-year effort to crack down on the industry. The debate appears close to being settled as the Legislature approaches a June 3 end date.

That effort stems partly from handwringing by conservatives who realized too late that the products they’d helped legalize can get people high. Pressure from the medical marijuana industry, which is dominated by just two Louisiana-based growers — one backed by a major GOP donor — and about 10 distributors, has also fueled the regulatory push. Still, the bills have put Republicans in the GOP-supermajority Legislature in the delicate position of wanting to appear tough on substances many view as akin to marijuana without being seen as crushing small businesses operating in a free market.

“I believe the majority of the members want to bring this and put some really tight guardrails on it,” House Speaker Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice, said in an interview.

A thriving new industry

The boom enjoyed by businesses such as Rad Dad started after the Legislature passed a series of laws opening the doors for vendors to sell products with up to 8 mg of THC, the compound in the cannabis plant that gets users high.

The THC craze was ushered in by an unlikely source: former House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, a Gonzales Republican who first brought bills to loosen rules on hemp when he chaired the House Agriculture Committee. Schexnayder left the Legislature in January due to term limits and now lobbies for the hemp industry.

The pivotal moment came in 2022, when many lawmakers gave their thumbs up to Schexnayder’s bill only after he assured the state-regulated marijuana industry privately and legislators publicly that it wouldn’t lead to the sale of mind-altering substances.

Instead, it became easier than ever for adults to get access to gummies and other consumable hemp products that get them high — largely because the products contain Delta-8 THC and its stronger cousin, Delta-9, compounds from the cannabis plant that produce intoxicating effects. Retail sales of consumable hemp products soared from $512,000 in 2020 to over $33 million in 2023, according to data tracked by the Louisiana Hemp Association. Tax revenue swelled from $64,000 to over $4.1 million in that period.

Though the state’s Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control has dinged relatively few businesses for illegal activity, the perception that bad actors have flooded the market — in particular, an idea that brightly-packaged gummies and sodas are being sold to minors, which is illegal — has fueled political backlash. That’s a concern of state Sen. Thomas Pressly, R-Shreveport, who’s sponsoring the stricter of the two anti-hemp measures. His Senate Bill 237 would enact a total ban on consumable hemp products containing THC in Louisiana.

“I don’t believe these should be available or sold at all,” Pressly told a Senate Committee in March. “It’s the same product as recreational marijuana.”

Delta-9 THC is also found in much of the THC-infused hemp being sold in Louisiana. In the short term, Delta-9 can cause exhilaration and relaxation, but also anxiety, memory loss, dysphoria, delusions, and hallucinatory experiences, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. The Food and Drug Administration has reported similar effects connected to Delta-8, also found in Louisiana hemp products.

The FDA has also warned of the danger of children ingesting THC.

The bill carried by Rep. Dustin Miller, D-Opelousas, offers a softer approach to regulation. House Bill 952 would retain the 8 mg limit on THC per serving while requiring extracts and concentrates to come in resealable containers with measuring devices. Only people older than 21 could buy the products, and all would be placed behind counters except for beverages. It has the support of hemp farm operators and consumable hemp retailers.

“My legislation simply tries to better regulate the industry with hopes to keep the industry alive, make it safer and keep it away from children,” Miller said in an interview.

Ruggles’ position at Rad Dad in Baton Rouge is also meant to address some of the concerns about safety and overconsumption. Armed with a certificate in cannabis health care and medicine from LSU, she helps people “who aren’t quite sure how to incorporate (the products) into their daily lives come up with a plan,” she said.

Uncertain future

The attempted crackdown has left store owners grappling with instability even as overall business booms.

Blaine Jennings, owner of Virgin Hemp farms in Youngsville, which mostly sells hemp flower to resellers, said it’s tougher to unload products in the current climate — a sentiment echoed by several other growers.

“People don’t want to get stuck with products in case the rules change. Sales drop during legislation,” he said. “We’re not as busy. I don’t want to lay anyone off, so we just have fun, make the best of it.”

Sales have been rosier for others. Joe Gerrity, owner of Crescent Canna in New Orleans, which creates and distributes consumable hemp products nationally, said one Rouses location recently sold 350 cases of his company’s popular Delta-9-THC-infused beverages in a single month. Based on Crescent Canna’s first-quarter business, that company alone is projecting $20 million in Louisiana retail sales this year if laws don’t change, Gerrity said.

Effects on industry

Though both bills’ prospects are unclear, some level of tighter regulation appears poised to pass the Legislature in the coming weeks. Miller’s more lenient bill awaits a hearing in the Senate Agriculture Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Stewart Cathey, R-Monroe — a staunch opponent of consumable hemp who sponsored the more aggressive of the two failed regulatory bills last year. Cathey did not return a phone message.

Pressly’s bill will receive debate in the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee. DeVillier, the House speaker, sent it there rather than the lower chamber’s Agriculture committee, where hemp bills are often debated. The criminal justice committee is among the most conservative panels in the House. Its chair, Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, declined to comment on the legislation. But DeVillier said he steered it to that committee because of concerns over the levels of THC in the products.

DeVillier expects a compromise between Pressly’s total ban and Miller’s regulatory approach, he said. He did not specify what such a compromise would look like. Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, did not return a phone message.

Jennings, meanwhile, is preparing for the worst. He’s trying to decide how to approach $50,000 in repairs needed for his farm’s septic system — an investment that’s tough to justify when he doesn’t know whether the industry will exist in several months.

“It’s hard to make long-term plans when every year they’re threatening to shut us down,” Jennings said.

Staff writer Sam Karlin contributed to this report.