Mount Desert Selectboard Contemplates Special Town Meeting For Intoxicating THC Moratorium
Aug 05, 2025
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Acadia Psychiatry.
MOUNT DESERT—A woman who has been actively substance free for 30 years ordered a margarita off the non-alcohol menu at a local restaurant, Mount Desert Selectboard Secretary Geoff Wood told board members, Monday night.
It sounds like not that big a deal, but it was.
“I spoke to a woman who’s, you know, been free of any substances for 30 years that went to dinner at a restaurant locally close by and ordered off the non-alcoholic beverage menu only to discover after she finished this that it was full of THC,” Wood said. “And it’s not okay.”
“That’s terrible,” selectboard member Martha Dudman said.
Rodney King asked, “How it that even legal?”
“The THC laws do not cover hemp, but they figured out how to extract a level of THC out of what previously was not strong enough to be regulated and people are being fed it without their knowledge,” Wood said.
“Absolutely,” Town Manager Durlin Lunt said.
Currently, people can go to a convenience store, bar, or restaurant in Hancock County and buy a drink that contains hemp-derived Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
The intoxicating products aren’t currently regulated, which is worrying some town officials in the region, particularly in Southwest Harbor and Mount Desert.
The sale of intoxicating hemp-derived drinks and gummies and other products could potentially be paused under a moratorium in multiple MDI towns with Mount Desert and Southwest Harbor leading the way.
Lunt said that the state legislature can only approach regulation once it reconvenes in January 2026.
“It flew under the radar,” Wood told fellow selectboard members Monday night. “It’s not regulated. People are buying it by mistake at gas stations.”
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.
For the woman Wood referenced, the alcohol-free margarita originally came out of a can that the server had poured into her glass. She didn’t see the can or what it contained until after he returned again, topped off her glass, and left the can.
The selectboard members worried about restaurants, bars, and gas stations explaining that products can be intoxicating.
“Frankly, you can’t expect people to care if there is profit involved,” Wood said.
For Mount Desert to have a moratorium on the sale of the products, it requires a town vote. Town meeting is not until May 2026. The general election is in November.
The select board seemed to have consensus for a special town meeting as soon as possible. For that to happen, there has to first be a draft ordinance, which the League of Towns is working on. The League is a group of government administrators from Mount Desert Island region towns and Ellsworth who typically meet monthly to discuss regional issues.
According to Cannabis Now, “The cannabis market has seen rapid growth in THC-infused beverages, with hemp-derived options now among the fastest-growing categories in the adult-use space.”
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.
“Can they do this fairly quickly?” selectboard member Martha Dudman asked.
Lunt said there will likely be a September draft of the moratorium language.
Wood asked about the process for other towns to enact a moratorium, which would be a pause on the sale of the products.
“Bar Harbor can act on their own,” Lunt said of the neighboring town’s council.
Towns with select boards (Mount Desert, Tremont, Southwest Harbor) have to have a moratorium approved by the voters rather than the governing body.
“I’d like to do it fairly quickly because I’d like a uniform ordinance that’s across the whole island,” Lunt said.
Mount Desert Town Clerk Claire Woolfolk said that the November election is 90 days away. The deadline for her to notify the state that there would be a special town meeting on that same day is August 15. However, the League is not meeting before that date and therefore the draft ordinance won’t have been presented.
She said she needs a minimum of 60 days because she has to request the coding of the voting machine and get the ballots printed and get all the notices of the election and everything posted for that sort of ballot vote.
An open-floor town meeting instead would take at least 45 days, Woolfolk said, but it would be a tight schedule for her office and it isn’t budgeted.
“So, it’s conceivable that we could do it in October,” Dudman said.
“I think it’s important to get it out in the public that the town of Mount Desert is not supportive of something like this,” Vice Chair Wendy Littlefield said. That way, she reasoned, there would be less likelihood that a restaurant would choose to serve the products.
Phil Lichtenstein said that it might be helpful for the board to write a letter to places where those products are potentially served or currently served to ask them as a courtesy to not sell the products.
“So these products are need(ing) to be regulated and they’re not. Anything we can do to slow it down…” Lichtenstein said.
Wood suggested the town’s Chamber of Commerce draft and distribute the letter. Others seemed to agree but there was no formal vote. The board voted in favor of telling the League of Towns to draft moratorium language to regulate intoxicating hemp products.
In July, the Southwest Harbor Select Board directed Southwest Harbor Town Manager Karen Reddersen to research a retroactive moratorium for intoxicating hemp-derived products, as well as a retroactive moratorium on tobacco shops.
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.
According to a piece by Julie Corliss, executive editor of Harvard Heart Letter, “Some people feel fine after small and sometimes even large amounts of THC. Others find even small amounts intolerable. ‘They may feel uneasy or anxious and their heart rate and blood pressure may rise. Nausea and vomiting are also possible, and some people even become paranoid and agitated,’ says Dr. (Staci) Gruber.”
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Hemp-Derived THC Drinks Face Potential Problems in Southwest Harbor
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Jul 23
“This Is Not Going Away.”
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Jun 26
More about the Select Board and contact information.
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