Griffin: ‘[T]hese harmful products are available in convenience stores with no age restrictions for purchasing them’

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement after co-leading a 20-state, bipartisan letter calling on Congress to affirm states’ authority to ban or regulate intoxicating and dangerous hemp-derived products like Delta-8 THC in the next Farm Bill:

“Arkansas has banned Delta THC products, but inconsistent court interpretations of certain provisions within the federal Farm Bill have led to challenges in Arkansas and many other states across the country. Meanwhile, these harmful products are available in convenience stores with no age restrictions for purchasing them. They’re often packaged to look like candy or mimic popular snack-food brands, so of course they are getting into the hands of children.

“This easy access and use of enticing packaging has led to more minors ingesting these unregulated and dangerous products, leading to seizures, loss of consciousness, and even death. That’s why Congress needs to create uniformity in the next five-year Farm Bill reauthorization and make clear that states have full authority to regulate and even ban these types of products.

“I am grateful to Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita for co-leading this letter with me and to the full bipartisan group of attorneys general who signed on. Protecting our children has to be our highest priority regardless of party affiliation.”

The 2018 Farm Bill reintroduced hemp as an agricultural commodity while maintaining federal prohibitions on cannabis products. However, bad actors have exploited the 2018 Farm Bill’s definition of hemp to introduce products that are intoxicating and are harming children.

Griffin and Rokita were joined by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington.

To read the letter, click here.

For a printer-friendly version, click here.

About Attorney General Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.

Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 27 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.

He is currently serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana. His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Liberty (née Bragg), North Carolina, and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.

Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.

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