Wyoming's delta-8 ban remains in place after judge dismisses court challenge

A federal judge in Wyoming dismissed a lawsuit Thursday alleging the state’s ban on selling delta-8 and similar substances is unconstitutional.

The substances are similar to marijuana and occur in tiny amounts in the cannabis plant, but anecdotally produce milder effects and, in some cases, can be synthesized using dangerous chemicals.

Judge Kelly Rankin accepted the state’s motion to dismiss for many of the same reasons he dismissed the plaintiff’s request for a temporary restraining order or injunction, he stated.

“Much of the analysis remains the same and the Court will incorporate the reasoning and cited authority from that Order herein,” he wrote. “Accordingly, the Court finds Defendants’ Motion should be granted and Plaintiffs’ claims are dismissed with prejudice.”

The plaintiffs — a cohort of delta-8 business owners, manufacturers, users and an agricultural operation — failed to prove any of their claims of unconstitutionality, Rankin continued. That included claims that the law violates the interstate commerce clause, amounts to unconstitutional taking and is void for vagueness.

“The fact that Plaintiffs are unhappy with the substances [the ban] prohibits, does not make the law vague,” he stated.

He also found that the federal lawsuit naming the governor and the state as defendants was inappropriate, citing Eleventh Amendment protections. Only the Wyoming attorney general and Wyoming Department of Agriculture Director Doug Miyamoto were proper defendants.

Rankin’s ruling does not give plaintiffs the option to appeal in the U.S. District Court of Wyoming, and the group has since filed an appeal to the 10th Circuit Court.

Or rather, plaintiffs amended an appeal filed Thursday morning — before Rankin’s ruling — which was already asking the appeals court to reconsider their request for an injunction.

The ban went into effect in July, and has cost some plaintiffs’ businesses thousands of dollars each day, they previously told the court. Wyoming’s delta-8 industry grew considerably in the years before the ban went into effect, blossoming out of a perceived loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill legalizing hemp at the federal level. The same language in that federal legislation was later adopted in Wyoming.

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