Herban Flow will close its Tyrone store Dec. 1 as its owners prepare for a federal law that could eliminate the products responsible for roughly 80% of the St. Petersburg retailer\u2019s sales \u2013 which will also affect all THC beverage retailers and distributors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to focus on selling our non-alcohol products at our downtown location,\u201d co-founder Michael Smith said. \u201cFrom there, once those sales are gone, we are going to probably have to shut down our second location.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are hoping a solution can come in before that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith operates Herban Flow with his wife, Caitlyn. The couple\u2019s Tyrone store is at 6848 22nd Ave. N. Their downtown location is at 501 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N., Unit 103.<\/p>\n
Congress has already changed the federal definition of hemp, with the new restrictions scheduled to take effect Dec. 11.<\/p>\n
The law sets a limit of 0.4 milligrams of combined total THC and other cannabinoids with similar effects per container for finished hemp-derived cannabinoid products to remain federally classified as hemp. It also accounts for total THC, including THCA.<\/p>\n
For comparison, a 5-milligram THC beverage contains more than 12 times the amount permitted under the new threshold.<\/p>\n
Smith said Herban Flow\u2019s selection would look markedly different.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny products that contain Delta-9, hemp, THC, edibles and full-spectrum tinctures will be gone,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe whole front half of the room at our store will be gone. What will still be on the shelves will be CBD, functional mushrooms, kanna, kava and then our adaptogen (herbal-based drinks) and non-alcoholic-based drinks and spirits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herban Flow grew from Smith\u2019s own experience with sobriety. He is six years sober, and he and Caitlyn built the business around offering alternatives to traditional alcoholic drinks.<\/p>\n
That has included hemp-derived THC beverages, which can produce intoxicating effects without alcohol. Smith said the approaching federal deadline is beginning to affect businesses further up the supply chain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing our suppliers being cut off,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of our customers are coming in that a truly sober are wondering, \u2018what are we going to do\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Florida lawmakers have spent several years debating how to regulate intoxicating hemp products without eliminating the industry. During the 2026 legislative session, lawmakers again considered proposals targeting THC beverages, including measures that would have tied their sale or distribution to Florida\u2019s existing alcoholic beverage system.<\/p>\n
Those proposals did not pass. The federal change presents a different problem. A product that exceeds the new limits would no longer fall under the federal definition of hemp, regardless of Florida\u2019s existing framework for hemp products.<\/p>\n
Smith said state regulators have yet to give him the certainty he needs to plan around that conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cDepartment of Agriculture has not said whether or not if the state has different laws than the federal if their business would be protected,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been silent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Congress could still amend or delay the restrictions before Dec. 11. For Herban Flow, however, the possibility of another change in Washington is no longer enough to keep both stores operating as they do today.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we are able to resurrect our business, we\u2019d love to,\u201d Smith said, \u201cbut my wife and I are a grassroots business and this law may put us in a position where we can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Herban Flow will close its Tyrone store Dec. 1 as its owners prepare for a federal law that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-421663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}