Several small business owners in Alabama have to figure out how to move on after their hemp shops closed following a statewide ban on some of their products. Those that remain open have been forced to make dramatic changes just to stay in business.
Hemp shop The Green Lady was one of the first of its kind stores in Huntsville. It recently closed after six years in operation and co-owner Jason Pauls said the impact has been personally devastating.
“I’m just trying to let it go at this point,” Pauls said. “You know what I mean? Yeah, it’s so emotional every time I do it (an interview), and it brings me into a place that I just don’t want to be right now.”
Alabama lawmakers banned smokable hemp and many other THC products during the 2025 legislative session. Several small businesses in North Alabama and throughout the state closed since the measure took effect in July.
‘No longer the wild west,’ bill sponsor says
The Green Lady sold a variety of hemp products like THC and CBD vape pens, edibles and more. It even had a DAB bar – a place where customers could sample products – in the store. Pauls said their clientele was mainly elderly people who struggled with chronic pain, mental health problems and cancer diagnoses.
Pauls and other hemp store owners say bill sponsors like State Rep. Andy Whitt, R-Harvest, misunderstand the industry in Alabama.
Whitt, however, told AL.com the law is necessary to provide greater regulation.
“HB445 has brought much-needed order and accountability to an industry that had grown out of control,” Whitt said. “No longer is it the wild west, where sugar-coated drugs were being sold in convenience stores or hemp shops were masquerading as stand-in pharmacies.”
“This law has helped protect our children, restore community trust, and ensure that only tested, regulated, and legal products are sold in Alabama,” Whitt said.
‘Why would I take that risk as a business?’
When owners first spoke to AL.com in July, Pauls estimated he would lose 80% of his profits but thought his team would be able to restructure the business to keep it open. By mid-August, he knew he had to shut The Green Lady’s doors for good.
His business lasted approximately a month and a half longer than Bama Kush in Huntsville and Cullman. It shut down on July 1 after owners heard about raids at other Alabama hemp stores. Operations Manager Aleah Pilgrim said the new legislation was too confusing and she didn’t want to risk losing money and products.
“So I called the ABC board myself, and they said they had no license available currently for that; it just seemed too sketchy to me,” Pilgrim said. “Why would I, with all these raids that happened? They’re (legislators) are saying we have to go through the ABC board. There’s nothing. The ABC board has no answers. Why would I take that risk as a business?”
ABC Board spokesperson Daniel Dye said it expects to have applications for retail hemp licenses available on or after Oct. 31. Under the law, hemp-derived products and retailers will be regulated by the ABC Board, which also controls alcoholic beverages through distribution, licensing and enforcement.
Jennifer Boozer Stewart is the “Sweet Home CannaBama” radio show host and a member of the Alabama Cannabis Coalition. She had to close down her shop in Mobile. She said that all of her peers had to close their shops too, even Moutaintop Dispensary, which had five locations in Alabama. They opted to move out of state.
She said it’s difficult to know exactly how many hemp shops had to shut down due to the new legislation because a database does not exist for these businesses.
“I tried to get the AG department to create a retailer’s license in 2019,” she said. “I had been in the business for over a year, and I could already see that everybody and their brother were starting to want to get into this. (…) We don’t have a directory of people that we can call and say, ‘Hey, you much money have you lost? How many employees have you lost?’ We’re having to ask people to do it on a voluntary basis, and that’s really hard.”
The Alabama Hemp and Vape Association sent out a survey for these businesses. So far, only a few business owners have responded.
“In the first few days, the numbers are pretty devastating as far as the financial losses,” she said. “I do know from interviewing people and the people I follow in the industry are constantly updating on what they’re doing and the numbers are bad.”
Pilgrim worked with her landlords at the Cullman location to terminate her lease early. However, she said her landlords at the Huntsville location on University Road would not work with her to shorten the lease so she is paying rent for another two years. She would have to pay approximately $30,000 to terminate the contract.
“I was coming up with a plan,” Pilgrim said. “Then, they dropped the bomb on us six months sooner than we were anticipating. It didn’t give anybody time to have an escape plan or get a sublease for people. If you’re stuck in a lease, it just screwed over a lot of people, business owners. Forget the legalities and whether you think it’s right or wrong to have cannabis in the state. We were working toward that. So my problem with all of it is, why did they just come in on unannounced one day and raid, and everyone just shut down?”
She sold Bama Kush’s inventory to a business owner who moved her hemp store to Florida.
Pauls turned over his remaining stock and clientele to CBD American Shaman, which has Huntsville and Madison locations.
“We’re still able to get those products out to people in our community that need them the most,” Paul said. “That was the most important thing to us, not leaving our customers high and dry.”
‘We don’t have much clarity’
American Shaman CBD co-owner Julianna Bowers said her business is only making half of what it was making before the ban. It is making approximately $30,000 to $40,000 between the two storefronts.
Bowers said her team can’t keep their business open as it is with the current limitations. She said not only are the new rules extremely restrictive, but they are also incredibly convoluted.
“Clarity is the key to making a successful transition, and if we don’t have much clarity,” she said. “There could be a lot of costly mistakes made, or a lot of misinformation, which there already has been, and it is detrimental to running a profitable business. If you don’t really know how the future is going to look, as far as a regulatory standpoint, how are you supposed to make business decisions and operate profitably and know that you’re going to be in business for a long time?”
‘Why should we be under more restraints?’
House Bill 445 makes selling or possessing certain CBD and THC products a Class C felony, carrying a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
It outlaws smokable hemp products, including flower, buds and pre-rolled cigarettes, which make up a large share of sales for many specialty retailers. The law also targets hemp-derived items containing synthetically produced THC, such as gummies, beverages and other edibles.
Some other forms of federally legal synthetic hemp, like Delta-8, -9 and -10, are allowed; however, Bowers said they are more difficult to sell under the current restrictions.
Bowers said the state law allows a maximum of 40 milligrams of Delta-9 THC per package, but it also requires each edible to be packaged separately.
For instance, instead of selling a container with four loose 10-milligram gummies, Alabama law mandates that each gummy be sealed in its own plastic wrapper.
Plus, THC-infused beverages must have child-proof locks.
Bowers said these rules are hypocritical.
“Beer doesn’t have a child-proof lock, liquor doesn’t have a child-proof lock,” she said. “Why would we be under more restraints? I’m not trying to say whether it’s a good or a bad thing. It’s just that they’re holding us to a different standard than they are alcohol.”
Pilgrim almost turned Bama Kush into a bar that could sell the low-dose THC drinks and gummies alongside alcoholic drinks. However, she said it would go against the reasons that brought her to the hemp industry.
“It defeats the purpose of why a lot of people choose to use cannabis, to prevent other drug use or drinking,” she said. “It didn’t feel right to me to do that. If I wanted to get into having a bar, I would have started a bar. That’s what it’s forcing.”
Several large companies are frustrated, too. They are suing state leaders to block a portion of the law.
Mellow Fellow Fun LLC, Tasty Haze LLC, The Humble Hemp Shack LLC, and Seedless Green LLC claim that the policy violates federal law by banning the possession, shipment, and sale of federally legal hemp products.
The plaintiffs are challenging the bans on smokable hemp and synthetic THC. They support the portions of the law that require ABC board regulations and labels with product ingredients and health warnings.
The lawsuit is still active. Defendants Governor Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall recently received an extension of time to respond to the complaint. Their responses are due on October 17.
‘I wish the state would at least provide a lawyer’
Pilgrim of Bama Kush is not interested in joining any type of lawsuit. She wishes there were legal or financial assistance for business owners who had to abruptly shut down to pay their lease.
“I wish the state would at least provide a lawyer for you and say, we’re going to help you out with this, at least we can litigate for you,” she said.
While the law is still intact, Bowers knows her business model is not sustainable, so they are completely rebranding the shops. They will be transforming from the CBD American Shaman to The Wellness Market.
They will still sell select CBD and THC products, but they will add several wellness services.
They hired an Ayurvedic practitioner who will focus on a holistic system of medicine to improve lives and wellness. There will be in-person and online guides, workshops and consultations.
“It’s all about empowering people to have the information to make the executive decision for themselves and for their health and well-being,” Bower said. “We understand that the more information that people have, the more educated they are on how this can benefit them, the more that they feel inclined to take care of themselves.”
Bowers is being extremely cautious so she and her family business are not penalized.
She knows that there is an important deadline on Jan. 1, 2026 when the ABC Board regulations take effect. All products must comply with the law, and they must obtain all necessary licenses by the new year.
Proposed ABC regulations were recently posted for public comment. The period just closed on Friday, Oct. 3. The ABC Board is reviewing the comments and will present them at the Oct. 9 meeting at 1 p.m.
However, Stewart and the Alabama Cannabis Coalition are looking past the new year and into the 2026 legislative session and midterm elections. She wants the survey to be completed by the next session to use as evidence to re-legalize smokable hemp and all synthetic cannabis. Her organization is currently endorsing candidates who support their efforts.
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