This is Polk County Republican Sen. Colleen Burton’s third attempt in three years to tighten rules around what has become a billion-dollar industry since the plant was legalized for sale in Florida in 2019.
Her 2023 bill was ultimately watered down to essentially banning hemp-derived products from being sold to anyone under 21, and adopting rules ensuring they were not marketed to be attractive to children. The 2024 version, passed in the Senate but only narrowly in the House, imposed strict strict limits on THC levels in hemp products and a complete ban on the sale of delta-8 THC—but it was vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).