Auburn council adopts ordinance regulating consumable hemp products and clears local approvals for Veil and J's

The Auburn City Council on March 17 adopted a new ordinance adding chapter 24 to the City Code to regulate consumable hemp products and approved local approvals tied to the ordinance for a specialty retailer at 1452 Opelika Road.

The ordinance establishes distance restrictions and local penalties for violations and is intended to complement state law. The City Attorney told the council that Alabama enacted HB 445 last year to regulate hemp-derived THC products and that federal law (the 2018 Farm Bill) and recently enacted federal appropriations language create a changing legal window: "So as we sit here today, we're in this window between 01/01/2026 when the state law became in effect, and the 2018 Farm Bill," the City Attorney said, explaining that a federal provision scheduled for November 2026 could further lower allowable THC limits and that the state law contemplates such federal changes.

Council discussion mixed legal, moral and public-safety questions. One council member said the presence of consumable hemp products in retail outlets raised moral and medical concerns and that they would not support an ordinance that, in their view, "authorize[d] the sale of these products at all." Council members pressed staff about proximity rules—250 feet from daycares, schools, houses of worship and public parks—and how existing licensed businesses would be treated if new conflicting uses moved nearby. Staff said an exception in the draft ordinance allows continuous, existing CHP retail operations to continue, but the exception ends if sales of CHP products are discontinued.

The council also held a public hearing on a conditional-use request for a specialty retailer known in planning materials as Veil and J's at 1452 Opelika Road. Owner and applicant Megan Hardesty identified herself for the record and said she had worked with staff and the Planning Commission to meet state and local requirements: "I am simply doing everything I can to comply fully and operate lawfully under the rules that have been put in place," Hardesty told the council, saying her customer base is largely adults seeking natural options for sleep and pain relief.

Because the consumable-hemp ordinance and the conditional-use approval interact, council members moved an amendment to make the conditional-use effective only on the ordinance's effective date (the date of publication, which staff projected as March 26). The amendment passed with one council member recorded as voting no; the amended conditional-use approval also passed with one nay. Separately, council approved the local element of the applicant's state license application.

City staff said enforcement would involve local code prosecutions for city-code violations and coordination with the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) board on investigatory work and licensure. The City Attorney recommended the ordinance as a way to provide local restrictions without creating statutory barriers that would be overturned by existing case law about locally banning state-authorized sales.

The ordinance will become effective on the date of publication, and the city indicated March 26 as the earliest likely publication date. The council's action leaves in place a process for licensing and local oversight while acknowledging that future federal action could automatically change permissible THC levels under state law.

Next steps: publication and implementation of chapter 24; the applicant's conditional-use approval will become effective on the ordinance's effective date per the council amendment.