Seven hemp businesses have filed to withdraw their federal lawsuit, at least temporarily, that opposed new Virginia rules regarding the content of their products.
The action comes a month and a half after a judge declined the businesses’ request to pause the new restrictions on how much tetrahydrocannabinol — THC, the main intoxicating compound in cannabis — can be used in hemp candies, oils and other products.
The motion filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia is to dismiss the suit without prejudice, which means its claims could be brought back to court at a later date.
“We’re withdrawing the case without prejudice to refile it,” Chap Petersen, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said in a phone interview on Friday.
He declined to elaborate further, saying he wasn’t yet in a position to talk about the next case.
In early August, the seven businesses, including the retail store Simply Hemp in Henry County, sued Gov. Abigail Spanberger and other state and local officials.
They asked for a temporary injunction ahead of the new rules taking effect Aug. 15. Petersen had said he hoped to postpone restrictions until the General Assembly could reconsider them.
They said that restricting THC in hemp products to no more than 2 milligrams per package would make many of their products illegal to sell, causing them significant financial harm and possibly putting them out of business.
That restriction came out of the state budget bill, finalized in June, that also will allow a limited number of licensed Virginia retailers to sell marijuana starting July 1 of next year.
At an Aug. 12 federal court hearing in Roanoke, attorneys for the state argued that Virginia has a right to regulate hemp products and was doing so in the name of safety, and that the business owners should already have been preparing for upcoming federal restrictions anyway.
The plaintiffs in the suit were Henry County-based Simply Hemp, Powhatan County-based Cypress Hemp, Manassas-based District Hemp, Chesterfield County-based Kultivate Wellness, Fauquier County-based Nova Hemp, Rockingham County-based Pure Shenandoah and Caroline County-based Redfern Hemp Co.
Besides Spanberger, defendants were Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones; Charles Green, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services; the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority; Jamie Patten, head of the cannabis authority; and multiple counties’ commonwealth’s attorneys.
