Whether you support them or not, intoxicating hemp products are
probably not going to be around for much longer in their current
form. States, municipalities, and even the federal government have
begun a clampdown on these products. In no particular order,
I'll address a few reasons why the back half of 2024 will be a
bad stretch for intoxicating hemp products.
First, let's talk about Loper Bright Enterprises v.
Raimondo, a 2024 US Supreme Court decision. Loper ended what's often
referred to as "Chevron deference." To vastly
oversimplify, Chevron deference required federal courts to
defer to reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes,
even if courts did not agree with those interpretations. With
Chevron dead, courts will not be required to defer to
agencies and courts can decide, on their own, whether an
agency's interpretation was within its statutory authority.
