Newsom quietly moves to extend his polarizing ban on hemp THC in California

OG Article

Lester Black

March 11, 2025

Hemp products like THC seltzers will likely remain illegal in California through the spring after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration quietly moved to extend his emergency ban on hemp last week. 

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Hemp THC products have swept the country since 2018, when Congress legalized the intoxicating drugs made out of a variety of cannabis plants. They’re sold online and at liquor stores and grocery retailers in dozens of states, and they have become an increasingly common sight in California. Last fall, Newsom issued an emergency order to block their sale. 

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Newsom’s ban on hemp was set to expire at the end of the month, and it wasn’t clear what his plan was, as his office did not return an SFGATE request in January asking if he would extend the ban. The answer came March 6, when the California Department of Public Health filed a notice to extend the ban. If the Office of Administrative Law approves the readoption, it will last 90 more days, extending the ban until late June. The emergency ban can be extended a maximum of two times, according to the Office of Administrative Law.  

Newsom has said the products must be banned because they lack safety regulations and are sold in corner stores, where underage people can access them. The hemp market is also a major business threat to California’s state-regulated cannabis businesses, which face significantly higher regulatory and tax costs compared with the lightly regulated hemp industry. 

California’s struggling pot industry has also heavily lobbied for the state to ban the products. Hemp companies face few (if any) regulations and can offer intoxicating cannabis products at a fraction of the cost compared with legal marijuana businesses, which must pay significant taxes and fees. Newsom has played an outsize role in developing those state regulations and fees for legal marijuana companies. 

On the other hand, hemp companies have accused Newsom of breaking the law with his hemp ban, filing a lawsuit against the state alleging that the ban broke the state’s own emergency rules. A court shut down that lawsuit in October.