Federal THC changes force Herban Flow to plan store closure

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’s sales – which will also affect all THC beverage retailers and distributors.

“We are going to focus on selling our non-alcohol products at our downtown location,” co-founder Michael Smith said. “From there, once those sales are gone, we are going to probably have to shut down our second location.

“We are hoping a solution can come in before that.”

Smith operates Herban Flow with his wife, Caitlyn. The couple’s Tyrone store is at 6848 22nd Ave. N. Their downtown location is at 501 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N., Unit 103.

Congress has already changed the federal definition of hemp, with the new restrictions scheduled to take effect Dec. 11.

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.

For comparison, a 5-milligram THC beverage contains more than 12 times the amount permitted under the new threshold.

Smith said Herban Flow’s selection would look markedly different.

“Any products that contain Delta-9, hemp, THC, edibles and full-spectrum tinctures will be gone,” Smith said. “The 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.”

Herban Flow grew from Smith’s own experience with sobriety. He is six years sober, and he and Caitlyn built the business around offering alternatives to traditional alcoholic drinks.

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.

“We’re seeing our suppliers being cut off,” he said. “Some of our customers are coming in that are truly sober, and wondering, ‘what are we going to do?’”

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’s existing alcoholic beverage system.

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’s existing framework for hemp products.

Smith said state regulators have yet to give him the certainty he needs to plan around that conflict.

“Department of Agriculture has not said whether or not if the state has different laws than the federal if their business would be protected,” Smith said. “They’ve been silent.”

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.

“If we are able to resurrect our business, we’d love to,” Smith said, “but my wife and I are a grassroots business and this law may put us in a position where we can’t.”