Hey, y’all! (That’s Southern for “let me introduce myself”.) My name is Jennifer Boozer. I am a hemp product retailer in Mobile, Alabama, and I specialize in cannabis education. Whether through classes, radio, public speaking, or day-to-day interactions in my store, I am always teaching what cannabis is, what it does, how it works, and how to use it. Where I come from, there was no product or information available in 2017. CannaBama was the first store of its kind to bring together a variety of hemp products and the educational information people were desperate for in the deep South.
When I first got started, I had no idea just how unprepared I was for the rigors of small business ownership, on top of the extra challenges we face as an industry with banking, marketing, and 80+ years of propaganda. Having been a stay-at-home mom for 17 years, terms like “naive” and “clueless” were accurate descriptors. Now, I host a weekly radio show/podcast, Sweet Home CannaBama, to expose the plant to a wider audience along the Gulf Coast. I had no choice but to register as a lobbyist in order to fight for my business and customers every single year. I have had to wear many unexpected hats throughout the last several years just to keep the place going. This work is not for the faint of heart!
One of the hats I wear is activist/lobbyist for the industry as well as the citizens of Alabama. As part of a small but passionate group of colleagues across the state, we are facing a massive and imminent threat that is also happening in many other states. HB65, what we dubbed the “Vape Ban Bill,” is a sweeping backdoor ban on both nicotine and THC/CBD oil vapor products. The problem is that the only thing this bill does is hurt families with children and shut down over 1800 reputable businesses by June 1.
Alabama already banned synthetic nicotine in 2019 but has had no resources to enforce the new law. The shops that complied all closed down, and the ones barely hanging on will not survive. Shops like mine, where we only sell vetted and tested hemp vape products, will face a catastrophic blow to sales, and I’m not sure my own shop would survive it after years of a pandemic and inflation.
Here is what HB65 will do: Create a $300-$500 fine for children caught vaping or they enter the juvenile system with possible expulsion from school if their parents cannot or will not pay the fine. It will ban ALL disposable nicotine vape products as well as hemp-derived CBD and THC vape disposables. People will have to cross state lines or order online, funneling millions of revenue and taxes out of the state, much like lottery sales. Only the businesses will suffer. It will absolutely close hemp stores who serve the people who will NOT QUALIFY for medical cannabis. And it immediately puts 1800+ law-abiding, tax-paying vape/smoke shops in Alabama out of business by the summer.
HB65 is being sponsored by Representative Barbara Drummond of Mobile, who is my own representative. It is being paid for by Altria and Big Tobacco after they reported a 2.2% decrease in revenue. In 2024, at least in Alabama, we have elected officials who will go to bat for cigarettes under the guise of “save the children” with statements such as “One hundred thousand children in Alabama will die in the next 2 years of we don’t pass this bill,” said by Senator Vivian Figures in support of Drummond last session when this same bill was tabled. Where are all those dead children nearly a year later? Why wouldn’t anyone ask for the information that could back that statement up? How is fining kids $300 in one of the poorest, least educated states in America supposed to save them? Why do so few of us, who stand to lose it all, fight against it? In a state with abysmal voter turnout, we have created an environment where the state can steamroll its own citizens and small businesses for donations from companies that kill their own customers.
This is the plight of CannaBama and so many more like me in Alabama who are obeying every law and paying employment, property, income, and sales taxes trying to feed our families and help our neighbors. We will simply have no other choice but to walk away, and not all of us are in a position to do so without great loss. Most of us love what we do and care deeply about those we serve. Why doesn’t that matter? Why does no one care? My hope is that I can shine a light on these and other issues facing the cannabis world on behalf of the industry as well as the people who rely on the plant for their quality of life.