ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - The cannabis industry is the 5th most valuable cash crop in the United States, and 40 states now allow some form of legal cannabis. WALB News 10’s Jamie Worsley explores some commonly asked questions about hemp products in Georgia in a three-part series entitled “Going Green.”

Part One: What Cannabis Products Can You Legally Buy in Georgia Smoke Shops?

Right now in Georgia, anyone over the age of 21 can walk into a smoke shop and buy products containing cannabis compounds, and they don’t even need a medical card. But those products are derived from a hemp plant that complies with federal and state laws.

It’s important to note that hemp and marijuana are both varieties of the cannabis plant, but they are different varieties grown for different purposes. It’s like how dairy cows and meat cows are both cows, but they are bred to produce different things.

Marijuana is mostly grown to produce a compound called THC, also known as Delta-9. It’s naturally occurring in cannabis and can have many medicinal benefits. To buy marijuana legally in Georgia, you have to have a medical marijuana card and one of 18 approved medical conditions.

But what about people who have pain, inflammation, or other conditions who don’t meet medical marijuana requirements? Hemp is one option. This variety of cannabis was originally grown in Georgia to produce a different natural compound, called CBD.

John Downs, who is a Georgia hemp farmer, explains that CBD won’t get you high. He has experienced the benefits of both varieties of cannabis firsthand.

“This flower has done wonders for me on a personal level. I used to be on a lot of different medications for attention deficit disorder; I was on different antidepressants, but when I started using actual cannabis, I found that when I opened that book to doodle like I would always do, all of a sudden, I was 5 pages in,” Downs says.

Hemp products in Georgia can contain some THC/Delta-9, but this is heavily regulated.

First, hemp plants in Georgia cannot have more than 0.3% THC when harvested, dried, and tested by the Ag department. For reference, medical marijuana oil in Georgia can contain up to 5% THC.

Once the hemp is processed and turned into things you can buy in the store, products like gummies and drinks are limited to 10 milligrams of Delta-9 per serving in Georgia. Milligrams per container are also limited.

After hemp was legalized nationally in the 2018 farm bill, more research was done on the plant. Processors found that other cannabis compounds besides CBD and THC could be extracted from legal hemp that produce other effects in the brain and body.

“That opened up a whole other market, and a whole other level of this industry just boomed overnight. For the boom to happen that fast, and without any of the education out there on it, and stores not educating what they are selling, that definitely had a negative effect on a lot of people who thought that they were getting something else,” Downs explains.

As previously mentioned, CBD and THC/Delta-9 are natural cannabinoids, meaning they occur naturally in the cannabis plant. Synthetic cannabinoids, on the other hand, are produced through chemistry. Delta-8 is a widely popular synthetic cannabinoid, and Delta-10 is growing in popularity.

“Look, all FDA-approved cannabis products are synthetic. So again, they’re not bad, but what we’ve seen is the proliferation of it, and they’re everywhere. What happens is because there is a limitation to Delta-9, what happens is we’ll call it, stacking cannabinoids. Brands or companies will say, ‘OK, we’ve got our maximum Delta-9 and our 10 milligrams, let’s add HHC to increase that potency by however many milligrams, because there’s no regulation on that. We can add THC-P, which will exacerbate both of those by 30 or 40%.’ And so, when you start to increase a couple of different THC analogs together, you know, you’re really kind of increasing the potency, right? That’s not for everyone. Is that bad for children? Absolutely. Should they be consuming that? Absolutely not,” says Joe Salome with The Georgia Hemp Company.

The Georgia Hemp Company only sells one type of synthetic cannabinoid, Delta-8. Salome says they conduct thorough consultations with their customers to determine their tolerance and desired effects.

Because Delta-8 products are new, chemically altered, and not regulated, the long-term effects are unknown.

Part Two: What compounds are in the cannabis products you can legally buy in Georgia smoke shops?

Even for those who have used marijuana or hemp products in the past, Salome says synthetic, hemp-derived products that are growing in popularity may produce different effects than consumers are used to.

“We do play one of the synthetics Delta-8 because I do see research going back to Doctor Rafael Michelin, who identified Delta-8 as a cannabinoid and how it interacts with the endocannabinoid system. It’s a CB2 receptor of THC. And so it works from your peripherals, versus a D9, which is more of a CB1 receptor in your neurological,” Salome clarifies.

“What are the dangers [of Delta-8]? What are the pitfalls? Getting too high. I can tell you’re not going to get in your car and you’re not going to drive. You’re not gonna go to the bananas. You’re not going to get into a fight or anything. You’re probably going to sit there and just wait till it gets over,” Salome explains.

In October 2024, Georgia required all products to have a Certificate of Analysis from a DEA-approved lab that breaks down the cannabinoid types and levels detected in the product. Each product has a scannable barcode that pulls up an in-depth form that looks like this.

When asked how Georgians can read this label and know what they are buying and consuming, Salone replied, “You can’t go in there blindly. You can’t go into the gas station, the head shop, a store like mine, or whatever it is, and be too confident, right? You’re learning. And I always say low and slow. It’s like Southern BBQ. Keep it easy. Titrate into it.”

WALB News 10’s Jamie Worsley went to several smoke shops and had consultations with workers. Everyone recommended that she start with a 10 or 25-milligram gummy, containing some combination of natural cannabinoids like CBD and Delta-9, and synthetic Delta-8.

When she asked about other synthetics like THC-P and HHC, they advised that those cannabinoids are much more potent. HHC is more potent than Delta-8, and THC-P is more potent than Delta-9 or THC.

Part Three: How can legal hemp farmers in Georgia get their products on shelves, given the raw hemp flower ban?

Last year, Georgia lawmakers like Senator Kay Kirkpatrick of the 32nd district introduced Senate Bill 33 to limit the potency of all “intoxicating cannabinoids” in a hemp product to 0.3%. Salome says this would have given Georgia producers an advantage in the hemp product market, but the bill did not pass.

“Look, quite frankly, the proliferation of synthetic cannabinoids have done two things. It’s helped more people get used to our industry, but it’s also hurt the natural product industry. We’re seeing that with Psilocybin and we’re seeing that with Kratom as well. We didn’t do anything here in our state this year, but state by state, you’re starting to see Delta-8, Delta-10, THC, HHC and other things starting to be regulated and taken out of the system a little bit.”

However, in October 2024, a ban on raw hemp flower went into effect in Georgia. Downs says, “It’s been a tight struggle, and it’s been tight on any and every farmer that has played with hemp this year. You have to be passionate about it to be in it.”

The most recent hemp legislation also banned hemp-infused foods, besides gummies.

“Everyone in the industry... their business has been cut in half since last October. Some of us can survive. Some of us will have to shut some stores down. Some of us will have to do some things that we wouldn’t want to do as we were growing businesses. I went from being an employer of many, many individuals, and I’ve cut that down quite a bit. That stinks,” says Salome.

Because so many processors out west started producing hemp-derived THC products before processors in Georgia, retailers could get those products faster and cheaper. Many Georgia hemp farmers found that the only profitable way to sell their crops in-state was in raw flower form, because it didn’t require months at the processor or processing costs.

“What that used to entail was, the state came out, took their cut, and they sent it off to the lab. If my flower was approved, at that point as a farmer, I was able to make the decision of, ‘Ok, I can sell this to another farmer and he can wrap it up in his batch, I can send it to a processor, or if I want to be proactive, I can go out and broker my own.’ At this point now, it all has to go to a processor. The way that the new October law is written, we’re not capable of brokering our own flower, so there’s no real outlet,” Downs explained.

Downs says there’s just one processor in the state that he is aware of that is set up to process hemp right now. Farmers are left wondering if they should get processing licenses themselves to create a legal hemp pre-roll, once again cutting out processor wait times or fees, and having an outlet for their raw flower.

Pre-rolls are flower that have been broken down and rolled up in paper... Making them technically processed when compared to raw-whole flower, just not chemically altered.

“The way that I’ve read the law is that if I’m not actually extracting from this flower, if I am just breaking down raw flower, I am not processing, but we don’t want to overstep any bounds. So I have put in several calls. It’s been over a month and a half. I’ve put in several emails. I’ve come back to it with no answer. In the beginning, they said they were going to look into it, and it’s like it just went dark. So we do not know what move to make. So again, we’re hoping that this stuff could technically go out to market,” Downs says.

While he waits for that answer, Downs hopes that state leaders will consider relinquishing the state hemp program to the federal government so Georgia can play by the same rules as most other states, or explore other ways that the hemp plant can be beneficial to Georgia’s economy.

“We are huge here in Georgia, especially north Georgia, in the flooring industry and all that. Why are we not trying to build relationships with them and start moving on a fiber sector of this? Why don’t we switch gears as a state in general? They really need to make the choice if they are going to back this program and back these people who are willing to grow this stuff, or are they going to cut this thing. And they’ve got to make a choice, because it’s just taking us further down in a hole every day that they don’t make one of those choices.”

The United States Senate recently approved the 2026 “Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Act” that “closes the hemp loophole that has resulted in the proliferation of unregulated intoxicating hemp products being sold across the country.”

The act will now move to the U.S. House. Then, if the house passes it, it would be set to the President.

More changes to the federal hemp industry could also come with the new federal farm bill that goes into effect by the end of the year.

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