Alison DirrSophia Tiedge
It was August 2024 when two kids arrived at Children's Wisconsin, having snacked on newly purchased gummies before the woman caring for them realized what they had eaten was not an innocuous sugary candy.
As the children wandered through a convenience store while the woman shopped, they were munching on what was later described as "THC gummies."
She told police the candy looked just like what they normally got in grocery stores, down to the Trolli branding. When she realized what they were eating, she took them directly to the hospital.
The store clerk told police he gave the candy to the woman after she purchased it, though surveillance video showed the clerk getting the gummies from under the counter and handing them directly to the two children, according to a Milwaukee police report.
Alderperson JoCasta Zamarripa was alarmed that police could not issue a citation because there is no age restriction in Wisconsin for hemp products, including on the sale of those that can get users high.
"The truth is that he was within his rights to hand those gummies to a child," Zamarripa said of the clerk on May 20, when the store owners came before the Common Council's Licenses Committee, which she chairs.
Manwinder Singh Bhagat, one of the owners of Rama Foods, 6730 W. Villard Ave., told the committee he believed there was a miscommunication. The employee had been fired, he said, and the store sells such products only to people over 21, as listed on some of the packages.
Now, council members led by Zamarripa and Alderman Peter Burgelis want to see that minimum age become more than optional in Milwaukee.
"There was no violation of city ordinance or state law; it is wholly unregulated," Burgelis said during a July 3 meeting of the council's Public Safety and Health Committee. "This ordinance will fix that and give an age restriction to these products."
Milwaukee council members seeking minimum age for delta-8, other hemp derivatives
Council members have put forward legislation to prohibit selling or providing hemp-derived THC products to anyone under 21 years old.
Those include products with names such as delta-8 and delta-10 — chemical cousins to marijuana. An investigation last year by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Examination and AL.com found the products are causing a sharp rise in reports of children and adults getting sick. Those findings are alarming doctors and public health researchers.
Such products can be traced to Congress' legalization of the sale of hemp and products extracted from it in the 2018 Farm Bill. Hemp is a type of cannabis plant with low levels of the psychoactive compound that gets people high, known as delta-9 THC.
The city legislation would carry fines of between $400 and $1,000.
It does not apply to "any non-intoxicating cannabinoids," including CBD.
The committee backed the ordinance, which is expected to go to the full Common Council for a vote at its July 15 meeting.
Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com.
From: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2025/07/07/milwaukee-council-committee-backs-regulating-delta-8/84430410007/
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