Arkansas Hemp Enforcement 2025 — Bio Gen, the 8th Circuit & Act 934

Last verified: May 2026

The Three-Step Enforcement Trigger

Arkansas hemp enforcement in 2025 followed a deliberate three-step legal architecture:

1. July 1, 2025 — The Eighth Circuit reverses the Bio Gen injunction. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacates U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson’s September 2023 preliminary injunction, holding that the 2018 Farm Bill "facilitates but does not require" state legalization of hemp products and that states may regulate hemp "in any manner more stringent than" the federal Farm Bill standard.
2. Act 934 of 2025 — The "trigger statute." The 2025 Arkansas General Assembly passed Act 934 (sponsored by Sen. Tyler Dees) updating the 2023 Act 629 framework with permit fees, specific definitions, and — critically — a trigger provision tying enforcement to a final judgment in the Bio Gen litigation. The trigger meant that Arkansas’s newly-tightened framework would activate only when AG Griffin certified that the federal litigation had concluded.
3. August 27, 2025 — AG Griffin’s certification. AG Tim Griffin formally certified that the Bio Gen litigation had concluded, activating the new enforcement regime statewide.

The Three-Month Enforcement Sweep

Within three months of AG Griffin’s certification, the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) Alcoholic Beverage Control Division seized more than 6,000 hemp-derived intoxicant products from convenience stores, vape shops, gas stations, and smoke shops across the state. The DFA enforcement targeted:

• Delta-8 THC gummies, vapes, and concentrates.
• Delta-10 THC products.
• Hemp-derived delta-9 edibles with finished-product delta-9 above 0.3%.
• Most THCa flower.
• HHC and synthetic-cannabinoid products.

Retailers were typically given a notice period to remove product from shelves before enforcement action. Wholesale distributors who refused to honor return policies for product they had sold to retailers became part of subsequent civil litigation.

What Act 934 Specifically Does

Beyond the trigger provision, Act 934 of 2025:

• Establishes permit fees for hemp processors and retailers handling lawful (sub-0.3% finished-product) hemp products.
• Defines the operational parameters of "lawful hemp" more precisely — including labeling requirements, batch-testing requirements, and supply-chain documentation.
• Provides specific civil penalties for unlicensed hemp-product retail (separate from criminal prosecution under the Schedule VI reclassification).
• Codifies AG Griffin’s certification authority — the trigger provision.

Practical Effect on the Hemp Retail Market

The hemp retail market in Arkansas was meaningfully disrupted by the August 27, 2025 enforcement trigger:

• Smoke shops, vape stores, and gas stations that previously stocked delta-8 gummies and hemp-derived delta-9 edibles either pulled product or risked civil and criminal penalties.
• Hemp brands shifted distribution away from Arkansas, reducing AR’s share of the broader Southern hemp market.
• Cross-border purchasing — some Arkansas residents now drive to Tennessee (where hemp-derived intoxicants remain less regulated, though Tennessee’s own framework is in flux) or to Missouri (where rec-cannabis is legal) for products that were previously available in Arkansas convenience stores.
• Licensed Arkansas medical dispensaries — which do not sell hemp-derived intoxicants — saw modest increases in patient applications among consumers who had been using delta-8 / delta-9 hemp edibles for self-treatment of qualifying conditions.

Ongoing THCa Question

One unresolved question is the legal status of THCa flower — raw, undecarboxylated cannabis flower whose delta-9 THC content is below 0.3% by dry weight (qualifying as legal hemp under the federal Farm Bill) but which converts to delta-9 THC when heated (smoked, vaped, or baked). Once heated, the finished product’s delta-9 content typically exceeds the 0.3% finished-product threshold, putting THCa flower into the Schedule VI controlled-substance category under Arkansas law.

Arkansas DFA enforcement has, in practice, treated THCa flower as Schedule VI. Some retailers contest this position, arguing that the legal status should be determined at the point of sale (raw, sub-0.3%) rather than the point of consumption (heated, above 0.3%). As of May 2026, no Arkansas appellate decision has fully resolved the THCa question; the issue remains a live area of litigation.

The Broader Hemp Industry Implications

Arkansas’s enforcement architecture has been studied as a model by other state legislatures considering tightening hemp-derived intoxicant regulations:

• Mississippi — SB 22 (2023) attempts to restrict hemp-derived intoxicants; SB 494 (2024) added age restrictions and labeling.
• Georgia — SB 22 (2023) and SB 494 (2024) imposed similar restrictions on the state’s estimated $5.5B hemp-derived intoxicant market.
• Tennessee — has periodic legislative attempts to regulate; less aggressive than AR/GA/MS.
• Federal action — the 2024 / 2025 / 2026 Farm Bill negotiations have included proposed amendments to the federal hemp definition that would close the finished-product loophole nationally. As of May 2026, these proposals have not been enacted.

Federal-Level Forecasting

If a future federal Farm Bill (2026 or later) closes the finished-product loophole nationally, Arkansas’s state-level enforcement framework would become less consequential — the products would be illegal federally regardless. If federal cannabis rescheduling (Schedule III) is finalized, the Arkansas medical-cannabis market would face a significant expansion of consumer interest, potentially shifting some former hemp-product consumers toward licensed Amendment 98 dispensaries.

Related on this site: Arkansas Act 629 of 2023, Send a Message, Contact CannabisArkansas.org.