Federal ban threatens DoorDash hemp deliveries

Federal ban on intoxicating hemp products will go into effect one month from now and this will impact dispensaries that sell those products, including a business in Tampa that started delivering some THC products through DoorDash. Fox 13's Brianna Arradondo joins us live in Ybor City. Okay, Brianna, didn't know that that was an option. Yeah, it certainly is an option, Chris. And I'm actually here at the Chillum Dispensary in Ybor City where the owner tells me that he just signed a two-year contract with DoorDash in order to make these deliveries. But he did not foresee a federal ban becoming a challenge with that. Now, for the next month, the owner, Carlos Hermida, tells me that everything that you see in that case there will be legal to sell from vapes and flower to gummies and other hemp-derived THC products. And you'll find some of that on DoorDash. He says that his shop, Chillum, started off as a CBD store and then they started selling intoxicating cannabinoids around 2020 or 2021. He says that there's been some pushback statewide on THC hemp but he was surprised to hear about the federal ban. So for now he's working to reach customers in more ways than one. I saw it as a way to get our products out to the community a little bit easier. There's people that can't make it to Ybor. And, you know, there's a lot of people that, you know, benefit from hemp that get a lot of anxiety, you know, coming out to a place like Ybor. It can get crowded. It can be intimidating to be out here. So it's a really simple process. I mean, we've got our tablet. An order comes in. You know, we accept the order. The driver shows up. You know, we have it backed up for them when they get here. And, you know, they simply take it to their door. And there are only certain THC hemp products like edibles that can be ordered. Carlos tells me DoorDash is in charge of verifying the age to make sure that the sale is allowed. Chillum's owner says that the total ban was pushed back a month from today to December 11th, and now it's already affecting their retail register with credit cards. As for this ban and why it's happening, Congress is actually doing this to close a loophole that they said that they found, and Chillum plans to sell, though, as much as they can. Okay, so what happens to all of those products when this ban goes into, takes effect? Yeah, so if it's still on their shelves on December 12th, Carlos tells me that of course it would be against the law and so they would have to destroy the products that they have here within their store. But the first step is going to be trying to get rid of it in terms of sales. And so he says that they may be having a sale here at their store to try to push those products out to customers as much as they can. And customers may find those sales on DoorDash. It sounds like. All right. Another service that we didn't know we would have in this day and age. All right, Brianna Arradondo, live for us in Ybor. Thanks, Brianna.