NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A collective of hemp growers in the state are suing the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) over what they say is the agency's abandonment of standard rule-making procedure that affects their business.
According to a lawsuit filed in the Davidson County Chancery Court, the Tennessee Growers Coalition says the department skirted its own rules and state law when it enacted so-called "emergency" rules regarding hemp production and sales in the state. These rules are therefore null and void, the hemp growers say in their complaint.
The rules correspond with the 2018 Farm Bill passed by the U.S. Congress. That bill redefined industrial hemp and hemp-derived products, removing them from the Schedule I Controlled Substances Act and making hemp an "ordinary (and legal) agricultural commodity," the suit states.
Click here to read the complete complaint.
Tennessee then changed its laws to reflect the same definition in 2020, the suit reads, allowing for retail sales of hemp-derived products like Delta-8, Delta-9, and Delta-10 THC products.
In May 2023, the suit says, the law was changed again, and lawmakers introduced a new definition of "hemp-derived cannabinoid[s]," which "placed extensive restrictions on their manufacture and sale."
One part of the law stated the Department of Agriculture was required to come up with new rules regarding hemp sales and products, giving the department until July 1, 2024, to have the rules set. The deadline was 14 months after the law took effect, the suit says.
"But the Department dragged its feet," the suit claims, stating TDA submitted proposed rules Dec. 14, 2023, and setting a public hearing on the proposed rules for Feb. 6, 2024. After the meeting, TDA said it would have the final rules published May 1, 2024, giving hemp growers and retailers enough time to familiarize themselves with them by the July 1, 2024, deadline.
Instead, the suit claims the department "abandoned the rulemaking process, and no final rules were promulgated following the public hearing," and published a set of "emergency" rules on June 28, 2024, three days before the July 1, 2024 deadline of enforcement.
Emergency rules are permitted under the Tennessee Uniform Administrative Procedures Act (TUAPA) without any public notice or comment period, but the hemp growers say the only "emergency" was the department's lack of action. However, an agency's "failure to timely process and file rules through the normal rulemaking process" is not considered a viable emergency under the TUAPA, the hemp growers say.
"By publishing rules where there was no cognizable emergency that permitted them to be enacted in this manner, the Department violated the TUAPA," the suit reads.
Further, the suit claims the department has admitted it will not enforce some of its emergency rules until at least Jan. 1, 2025, even though the emergency rules actually expire on Dec. 25, 2024.
Additionally, even though the department published the rules June 28, 2024, it admitted publicly they would not begin enforcement of the rules until Oct. 1, 2024.
"This three-month enforcement delay further shows that there was no emergency; the Department simply chose the path of least resistance to issue the rules it preferred—absent any involvement from the public," the suit reads. "This violates the TUAPA."
The growers ask the Court to declare the emergency rules void and prevent the department from enforcing them.
Parties in the suit include the Tennessee Growers Coalition, Saylor Enterprises LLC (doing business as CBD Plus USA) and Gold Spectrum CBD LLC.