Suburban Atlanta THC warning, raids prompt hemp industry lawsuit

A suburban Atlanta county is wrongly seizing hemp-derived THC products and scaring businesses away from legal products, according to an Atlanta law firm that is suing to stop the practice.

The lawsuit asks a state court to block seizures or arrests in Gwinnett County, where a district attorney recently wrote a nonbinding opinion that intoxicating hemp products including delta-8 and delta-10 THC violate Georgia drug law.

Attorney Tom Church told Hemp Industry Daily that the interpretation is incorrect and is chilling business for Georgia hemp manufacturers and retailers.

“This stuff is sold throughout the entire state, mostly in vape stores,” he said.

The complaint says that hemp extracts are being sold “openly and publicly under the reasonable belief that Georgia has legalized these products as long as the cannabinoids in the products were sourced from hemp.”

Church said that several businesses selling the intoxicating hemp derivatives have been raided, with at least one arrest.

His clients are vape stores that have not been raided but are seeing a loss of business because of the January DA statement that the hemp products “contain controlled substances that in some cases are lethal,” according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

A hearing in the case had not been set Monday.