Intoxicating Hemp Products Could be Subject to Moratoriums in Southwest Harbor and other MDI Region Towns
Jul 23, 2025
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by First National Bank.
SOUTHWEST HARBOR—Right now, if you go to a convenience store or restaurant in Hancock County, you can buy a drink that contains hemp-derived THC, and at least one of those drinks says that it has “all of the buzz, none of the hangover,” but sale of those intoxicating-hemp drinks could potentially pause in some local towns or maybe the entire Mount Desert Island region.
These intoxicating products aren’t currently regulated, which is worrying some town officials in the region, particularly in Southwest Harbor.
The sale of intoxicating hemp-derived drinks and gummies and other products could potentially be paused under a moratorium in multiple MDI towns with Southwest Harbor leading the way.
The hemp-derived products can potentially intoxicate and some could reportedly cause hallucinations. They are currently being sold in Mount Desert Island region towns and online.
Alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis products are regulated in various ways. The intoxicating hemp-derived products do not have those regulations and aren’t currently covered by the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy except for a new age restriction passed by the Maine Legislature.
However, Forbes has reported that “the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved the FY2026 Agriculture-FDA spending bill, which includes a provision banning intoxicating hemp products, but implementation would be delayed for one year.”
That spending bill passed the committee unanimously in early July. In it, hemp is redefined, which is meant to “close the hemp loophole that has resulted in the proliferation of unregulated intoxicating hemp products being sold across the country.”
The hemp industry has said it would be impacted by the restrictions. Currently, the intoxicating hemp products can be purchased online, in stores, and in gas stations throughout the country.
In 2018 the Farm Bill, a federal bill, legalized hemp products’ manufacture and distribution by removing “hemp” from the Controlled Substances Act, which is also federal.
“Congress did so by defining hemp as any part of the cannabis plant which contains less than 0.3% delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis. At the time, delta-9 THC was the most well-known psychoactive compound of the cannabis plant,” Reuters reported.
Delta-8 and delta-10 THC have psychoactive effects that allow products that can fall below that delta-9 threshold. The products are federally legal. Many states have been looking to restrict them or ban them.
SOUTHWEST HARBOR ACTIONS
The Southwest Harbor Select Board met in executive session on Tuesday afternoon and the League of Towns met openly Tuesday morning to discuss potential moratoriums which would prohibit the the sales of potentially intoxicating hemp products in their respective towns.
Maine LD 1920, an act prohibiting the sales of potentially intoxicating hemp products to persons under the age of 21, was passed by the state legislature this session. However, there are no state regulations about the sale of the intoxicating products to those over 21.
That has worried Southwest Harbor Select Board member Natasha Johnson, who is a co-owner of Meristem, Hancock County’s only recreational-use retail marijuana store, located in Southwest Harbor.
During the Southwest Harbor select board’s executive session Tuesday night, the board members consulted with an attorney about options for a moratorium in the town. The public is not allowed to attend executive sessions.
In its regular meeting, which followed that executive session, the board directed Town Manager Karen Reddersen to research a retroactive moratorium for intoxicating hemp-derived products, as well as a retroactive moratorium on tobacco shops.
Those unanimous motions were followed by a third motion.
“So I would like to make a motion to instruct the town manager in consultation with the town’s council to notify individuals potentially affected by the potentially retroactive moratorium,” Chair Noah Burby said.
That motion is to consult with Bernstein-Shur to help with notifications about individuals potentially affected by the retroactive moratoriums.
A member of the public asked if the board had talked to the town of Tremont. “They can go three miles down the road and buy” the products there, he said.
“There was discussion at the League of Towns related to this issue and another town that had an interest in exploring them,” Reddersen said.
LEAGUE OF TOWNS DISCUSSION
Whether or not the individual towns in the League of Towns will move forward with possible moratoriums is unsure. Currently, the issue has not been brought before any other town or city boards for action though the topic has been discussed in Ellsworth under the umbrella of a larger workshop about retail marijuana.
League of Town (LOT) Chair and Tremont Town Manager Jesse Dunbar asked the group Tuesday if there was interest in the LOT pursuing a more regional moratorium.
“I would say if anything that they are growing in popularity,” Johnson said during the League of Towns’ meeting about the intoxicating hemp-derived products.
Her husband manages the Liquor Locker and in one of the ordering catalogues, he recently received, it focused on industrialized hemp, THC-containing drinks.
“They have an entire section of industrialized hemp THC containing drinks that they are offering,” Johnson said.
That catalogue goes to restaurants, bars, and other liquor stores. Johnson said the products make regulations as safe servers complicated. SaveServe (a certificate program in Maine for servers) follows Maine law and only can have two drinks with alcohol in front of a patron.
“Those regulations are not in place for these potentially intoxicating products,” Johnson said.
So, without regulations, a bar or restaurant patron could have two drinks with alcohol in front of them and multiple THC-drinks, she said.
Dunbar said he had talked to a woman who was surprised at a restaurant when looking for a drink that she was about to order that it had THC in it. She had not expected it and only realized because of the server letting her know.
“So, I had gone in there before and not really paid attention, but I did look, and there’s a cooler there in a little fridge like this, but therein, you know, next to the ice tea, ice coffee, whatever, there’s something on the front of it about THC, I believe,” Dunbar said of a local establishment’s offering of the products.
“Someone could buy it by accident,” Mount Desert Town Manager Durlin Lunt said.
According to Reddersen, Southwest Harbor Police Chief John Hall hasn’t received anything about enforcement or how to manage enforcement from the state.
”I think it’s challenging,” Reddersen told the LOT members, which is why Southwest Harbor is consulting with its attorneys.
Bar Harbor Town Manager James Smith said that Bar Harbor banned flavored tobacco products prior to his arrival as town manager. That ban was done by ordinance in the town.
Dunbar said that if Bar Harbor found a way to ban those, the process would likely be similar to that.
“If you’re going to do a moratorium, then I would do a moratorium until such time the state adopts something rather than each individual town trying to adopt something,” Trenton Select Board Chair Fred Ehrlenbach said.
Johnson said it could be letters to businesses and then word of mouth.
“Who’s going to go around and check all the stores to make sure they’re not doing it?” Ehrlenbach asked.
If it’s an ordinance, then it would be the code enforcement officer, he said. If the state addresses the issue, it would have the enforcement aspect in it, making the sale a misdemeanor or criminal offense, he suggested.
Smith said the Bar Harbor council hasn’t had any conversation on the topic yet and it was difficult for him to weigh in without having clear direction from the town’s elected body. He suggested the LOT create a memo that he could present to the councilors.
“This is really a state issue and the state needs to address this if it’s going to be addressed,” Smith said.
Reddersen said state action would likely take at least a year.
Johnson suggested that she could come in and talk to Smith about the industrialized hemp products that are synthesized in ways that make them intoxicating. Smith said he was sure they could connect after the meeting. Dunbar said he could type up a memo to give to Smith and anyone else who wants it. They could then disperse it with their boards and councils as they saw fit.
Ellsworth Deputy City Manager Sarah Devlin said that when Ellsworth had its community workshop, in its next work join session with the planning board and council, they are considering adding something about these products to the city’s ordinance.
Trenton’s ordinance on retail cannabis will be presented at the next town meeting, Ehrlenbach said.
“It may be a special town meeting or it may wait until the spring,” he said.
Retail marijuana sales ordinances have not moved forward in Bar Harbor.
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