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Consumable hemp products
The Vestavia Hills City Council on Monday approved a temporary moratorium on business licenses to sell consumable hemp products in the city.
The moratorium will last through the end of the year and give city officials more time to review the state law that required businesses that sell consumable hemp products to get approval from cities in order to operate, Mayor Ashley Curry said.
While the new state law gives cities approval power, it did not establish a process or guidelines by which municipalities are to make decisions as to whether to approve a license or not, City Attorney Pat Boone said.
The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has 20 pages of regulations that these businesses must follow, but there is no guidance given for municipalities, Boone said.
Curry said the City Council would need to determine things such as how far away such as business might need to be from a church, school or day care.
Additionally, a new federal law passed in November of last year that changed the definition of hemp will go into effect Nov. 12 of this year. That law effectively will make most intoxicating hemp-derived products illegal, including delta-8 gummies, drinks and vapes.
The new federal law was designed to close some loopholes in the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 that led to a lot of products being sold that were not labeled appropriately and that contained very intoxicating substances, sometimes labeled as “gas station weed,” Councilwoman Kimberly Cook said.
While a new state law passed last year required better labeling of products and set limitations on what types of businesses can sell consumable hemp products, it still allows consumable products with 10 milligrams of tetrahydocannabinol, often known as THC, Cook said.
THC is the primary psychoactive cannabinoid found in the cannabis plant and is responsible for the “high” associated with marijuana use. It acts on cannabinoid receptors in the brain, affecting memory, pleasure and coordination, and is used both recreationally and medically.
Ten milligrams of THC is essentially as potent as marijuana and can lead to psychotic episodes and extreme anxiety, Cook said. Poison control centers are getting more calls related to THC usage, she said.
The new state law allows these products to be sold in grocery stores.
“I’m very concerned,” Cook has said. “Parents do not want this stuff to be freely available because we all know that if something is easy to get, our kids will get it, especially if it’s intoxicating.”
Other cities such as Hoover and Pelham also have adopted moratoriums on business licenses for selling consumable hemp products.
In other business Monday night, the Vestavia Hills City Council agreed to purchase a new financial management software system that will help the city automate workflows, reduce the amount of data that must be manually entered into computer systems and more easily share data between city departments.
The system will cost $108,000 this fiscal year and $185,000 per year in following fiscal years, plus a one-time $150,000 implementation fee in fiscal 2027. The goal is to bring the new system online by Jan. 1.
Once fully implemented, the new system is projected to save the city between $247,000 and $547,000 a year due to efficiencies, records show.
The City Council also on Monday night:
- Approved adding $20 to the cost of each residential building permit to provide funding for a Central Alabama Homebuilding Academy that will train people who want to get into the business in order to address a workforce shortage.
- Appointed Trey Woodruff to the Vestavia Hills Board of Education from June 2026 through June 2031.
- Reappointed Mike Fliegel as Vestavia Hills’ representative on the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority through May 30, 2030.
- Heard a report from City Manager Jeff Downes that the city’s sales tax revenues, for the first half of fiscal 2026, are up about 3% from the same period in fiscal 2025.
