ROCKY MOUNT, Va. (WFXR) – A bill sitting on Governor Glenn Youngkin’s desk would cap hemp products at .3% THC or two milligrams per package. Collin Richardson says that would put his Rocky Mount store, Crooked Road Herbal Reserve, out of business.

“It’s a scary time, a very scary time. It’d be pretty devastating for five years of work to go down the drain,” he said.

Richardson sells CBD products, including full spectrum products that include THC, the compound that gives users a high. However, most CBD products include minimal THC and aren’t intended to get people high.

Richardson sells mostly topicals, like lotions, that aren’t for ingestion. Even a bath bomb in his store would have to go, he says, because the THC level is over .3%. He says only about two CBD products would still be legal, and he won’t have inventory left to sell.

“We’ve got lawmakers that are requiring us to have certificates and stuff like that, when they aren’t required to even know what they’re talking about,” he said. “There’s no educational requirement on somebody to write the law that is now telling everyone in the industry how to do it.”

He adds that people can still order products online; they just won’t be able to buy many hemp and CBD products at Virginia stores.

The bill received bipartisan support from the general assembly, with supporters saying it addresses safety concerns, particularly around children ingesting products. Bill sponsor Senator Emmett Hanger told WFXR’s sister station WRIC that safety takes priority.

“I think we have to look at consumer safety, and in this instance, children’s health and safety is more paramount to somebody making a couple of dollars off of selling a product that can be dangerous,” he said.

Still, Richardson and some other business owners say lawmakers are going too far.

“I never thought my first business would shut down because of the government. I thought it would be because of a mistake I made,” he said.

He expects many hemp and CBD store owners will have to cut out products and struggle to stay open under the proposed regulations.