In our spotlight on Business Report tonight, more questions and confusion for people working in the hemp industry after a court decision struck down part of a new state law regulating the sale of hemp products that would have required stores to pull the products from their shelves, but instead only requires them to follow an age restriction banning sales to anyone under 21.

The back and forth has left manufacturers and store owners in a state of limbo as they try to make sense of what to do next.

Ted Goldberg reports.

Looking forward to the state, clearing things up.

Hopefully it's.

Confusing and disappointing.

Thanks to a recent judge's decision in a lawsuit.

You can still buy intoxicating hemp products statewide.

Last month, a new law was signed that would regulate THC derived hemp like cannabis, which would have forced most stores to pull most hemp products off their shelves.

Companies sued and won a partial victory late last week.

There should be required standards.

There should be a way to check how are people pulling their samples?

How are they making sure that the sample that's on their website is representative of the product that people are purchasing?

These are important questions that the answer cannot simply be.

We all know the answer to these questions and therefore we're going to ban everything that helps people that people want.

If we knew factually that the ingredients in an aspirin was different than the ingredients listed on the packaging, we would take it off the shelves immediately.

A total recall would happen right now.

Same thing is going on, but they're keeping the products on the shelves.

Scott Rutter leads the cannabusiness association.

He says his group has frequently found hemp products with far more THC than what is shown on the labels.

It has to go through this legal process right now.

I know that there are law makers right now who are very disappointed that there is a hold on this from getting this off of of convenience stores and gas station shelves.

So there is disappointment going on right now.

Again, the lawsuits got to go through its proper process here.

We are advocating right now that the state does have the authority to take those products off the shelves.

And I think they should do so, should be.

Able to be sold here and be able to be imported in, but through a proper regulatory process.

So whatever New Jersey deems through its regulatory process from a testing threshold.

Right.

To ensure that the products that are being sold in our market are adequately tested.

Adam Terry owns Cantrip a massachusetts based company selling THC drinks and one of the parties suing the state of New Jersey.

Part of their lawsuit argues the new law is unconstitutional because it would put an undue burden on business in other states.

We don't tariffs on what comes in either from out of state, right?

You can't have a tariff for anything coming in from Pennsylvania the same way you could have a tariff coming on things coming in from China.

You can't discriminate against other states economically like that.

And so that is part of the Constitution and the.

Issue of out of state manufactured hemp products, intoxicating hemp products, was never going to be enforceable.

Right.

Because of interstate commerce.

And the court ruled that that, in fact, was the case.

And so that when New Jersey developed its regulated market, it could not prevent the importation of out-of-state hemp derived products.

The big issue is treating hemp, which is legal federally like cannabis, which is not the only part of the New Jersey law.

Still standing is a requirement that you must be 21 to buy these products.

Leading to confusion among the smoke shop owners I spoke to but who didn't want to appear on camera.

We want to see a rule that creates a system that regulates and taxes it, while also create the resources that law enforcement needs to actually uphold this law.

There's thousands of liquor stores in New Jersey and, you know, probably a thousand or more shops beyond that.

So for them to police, every retailer in the country here in the state was just going to be a monstrous task.

Cannabis attorney Bill Caruso says the federal government is also to blame for this mess, since cannabis is still listed as a Schedule one drug, the.

Congress has failed to act and clarify.

Right.

There's some efforts going on.

But don't hold your breath on that and we'll all be old people before Congress weighs in on this.

So it's again been left to the states to regulate and deal with this.

And figure out a compromise between keeping people safe and letting businesses succeed statewide.

As the legislature will likely go back to the drawing board to rewrite this law.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Ted Goldberg.