With its busy airport, abundant accommodations and myriad of other distractions, Vegas is the mecca for these gatherings, no matter what industry you\u2019re in. And CHAMPS is a big one. While CHAMPS is considered a counterculture expo, it also appeals to the masses since products \u2014 primarily lifestyle accessories and ancillary goods \u2014 can be sold anywhere. Think pipes and vapes; think whatever you can find at a smoke shop, truck stop or novelty shop; think CBD supplements and smokable hemp. <\/p>\n
Tommy Chong<\/a> was there, and so was Mike Tyson.<\/a> Even Joe Exotic showed up \u2014 well, his brand did, since he\u2019s in prison. According to TMZ<\/a>, the brand was launching a cannabis seltzer called \u201cTiger Piss.\u201d All extremely normal stuff for a cannabis tradeshow. But then this happened:<\/p>\n Starting Wednesday, July 28, breathless reports<\/a> of a law-enforcement raid at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where CHAMPS had opened on July 27, started to fly around the internet, with the fires fanned by credulous Instagram accounts and unsourced blog posts.<\/p>\n The Champs Trade Show is now taking place in Las Vegas, NV, and it wasn\u2019t long before the DEA and FBI decided to raid the event. \u2014 AudioKush (@AudioKushHQ) July 28, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cEXCLUSIVE,\u201d blared Cannatechtoday.com<\/a>, \u201cCannabis Trade Show Raided by the Feds.\u201d A common source for this was @TheBlacklistxyz, a popular Instagram aggregator \u2014 which went even further, reporting that in addition to the DEA, the FBI was there too \u2014 a wild, nonsensical twist picked up in turn by TheWeedBlog<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a long time since federal cops staged a major raid on the legal cannabis industry. A DEA raid would be huge news. But for some reason, no major media outlet had picked it up \u2014 and in an era saturated with smartphones, nobody had managed to snap even a blurry photo of the \u201craid.\u201d <\/p>\n Meanwhile, elsewhere on social media, there was a grinning Tommy Chong and a steely-eyed Iron Mike, carrying on as normal. If this was a raid, it was the chillest raid in history. What was going on?<\/p>\n As it quickly turned out, not a single one of the alphabet soup of federal law enforcement agencies was present \u2014 not the FBI, DEA, FCC or the FAA. Most of the accounts that posted otherwise quietly removed or edited their posts. <\/p>\n But this isn\u2019t to say there wasn\u2019t lawbreaking afoot at CHAMPS. <\/p>\n On June 4, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak signed into law Senate Bill 49<\/a>, which outlaws \u201csynthetic cannabinoids from being produced, sold or offered for sale\u201d in the state. This includes Delta-8 THC, a less powerful cousin to the Delta-9 THC found in cannabis. <\/p>\n Over the past year, Delta-8 has exploded in popularity, since it can be easily procured from hemp-derived CBD, and with the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill, it was deemed legal under federal law since it\u2019s a hemp product. (This would be why reports of a DEA or FBI raid, at a show that did not welcome Delta-9 THC products, made no sense.) However, state law is not federal law \u2014 and anyone following SB49 would know that Nevada now bans Delta-8 THC. That meant the legal landscape for CHAMPS \u2014 and any other cannabis trade show in Las Vegas \u2014 had shifted, creating potential for significant disruption for any would-be vendors in the Delta-8 space.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t until July 17, about ten days before CHAMPS\u2019s doors opened, that show vendors \u2014 some of whom paid around $3,200 each for one of the show\u2019s 1,500 tables \u2014 received an URGENT email from organizers. <\/p>\n The night before, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) informed CHAMPS that SB49 was indeed in effect. No vendor at CHAMPS would be allowed to sell or even advertise anything Delta-8-related \u2014 not so much as a brochure saying Delta-8 would be available somewhere else. Even mentioning Delta-8 was problematic.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we know this may be disappointing to you, we are required to abide by the decision made from the state and the LVCVA,\u201d the email stated. \u201cWe hereby ask that you make absolutely sure that all displays you have, including logos, merchandise or any other visual imagery does not promote Delta-7, Delta-8 or Delta-10 products, as you will be fined and then removed from the show by the authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n But that wasn\u2019t the only federally legal product banned at CHAMPS.<\/p>\n On July 23, attendees received another email with more rules. Anything edible with CBD in it was also banned. You could hand out all the CBD lotion, vaping oil or flower you wanted, but \u201cNo food and beverage containing any CBD will be permitted to be distributed anywhere on the convention grounds\u201d due to rules set by Centerplate, the company contracted by LVCVA to provide concessions at the convention center. The email invited vendors with any outstanding questions to a Zoom meeting later that day. Additionally, upon check-in, all vendors were notified both verbally and in writing about the updated rules. <\/p>\n Despite at least four email notifications, as well as a personal phone call to everyone that CHAMPS believed to have Delta-8 products, not everyone heeded the memo. <\/p>\n On the morning of July 28, the show\u2019s second day, vendors received yet another message \u2014 this time instructing vendors that they \u201cMUST be at the Convention Center today, no later than 10 a.m. to discuss issues.\u201d<\/p>\n The day prior, someone from the LVCVA had been offered \u201cboth a D8 product and a CBD food product,\u201d CHAMPS President Jeff Hirschfield told Cannabis Now. CHAMPS was not informed of which vendor gave out the samples, but CHAMPS staffers did ask two vendors to leave that failed to follow numerous requests to clean up and adhere to all guidelines, Hirschfield said. This delayed the show\u2019s opening until 12 p.m., one hour later than scheduled. <\/p>\n That 10 a.m. meeting \u201cto discuss issues\u201d had somehow morphed into a \u201cDEA and FBI raid\u201d by the time weed Instagram was done playing a game of telephone. <\/p>\n Representatives from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority did not return several telephone and email messages seeking comment. <\/p>\n Hirschfield had nothing but kind words to say about LVCVA \u2014 after all, the Delta-8 ban wasn\u2019t their idea. Some vendors, however, were less than impressed \u2014 and figure they\u2019ll be dropping Las Vegas from their trade-show tour itinerary.<\/p>\n \u201cCHAMPS was extremely transparent \u2014 you could not have any kind of Delta-8 products at the show,\u201d said Shawn Honaker, the owner of Yeti Farms, a Colorado-based manufacturer of Delta-8 gummies<\/a>. <\/p>\n Honaker was in Las Vegas to find new distributors \u2014 whom he had to woo, somehow, without being able to offer any product or even any brochures saying he had a product. He\u2019d made 70,000 non-medicated gummies to put into 7,000 packages, he said. By the time LVCVA passed on the bad news to CHAMPS, it was too late for Delta-8 vendors to find a plan B. <\/p>\n \u201cPart of my gig is handing stuff out,\u201d he said. \u201cI called CHAMPS, and I said, \u2018What am I supposed to do, just have my business cards and lanyards there?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a gummy I can buy at a gas station. And they\u2019re treating it like it\u2019s a kilo of cocaine,\u201d he said, adding that the new Nevada ban on Delta-8 made the legal landscape\u2026 a little weird, and not at all conducive to a successful big-tent cannabis industry\u201d trade show.<\/p>\n \u201cI can sell all the kratom and all the nitrous whip-its I want. And I cannot give away a single, unmedicated, sugar gummy,\u201d he added. With that law, \u201cWhat\u2019s the point of the show?\u201d he asked. \u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s a black eye on the Las Vegas cannabis scene. I won\u2019t be investing any more money on Nevada cannabis and hemp shows.\u201d<\/p>\n Hirschfield disputed that analysis, pointing out that Las Vegas\u2019s only shortcoming (aside from the ban on CBD food and beverage) is with Delta-8 THC. All Delta-8 vendors were offered half price booths in Atlantic City or any other state CHAMPS is in, providing Delta-8 is legal in that state, he added. <\/p>\n The next CHAMPS show is later this summer in Atlantic City, New Jersey where, for now, Delta-8 THC is legal. As it stands, cannabis trade shows will have to stick to the familiar when visiting Las Vegas: Tommy Chong products and autographs, Joe Exotic\u2019s Tiger Piss, and Mike Tyson\u2019s latest blunt wrap collab<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A significant portion of the cannabis industry is nomadic. Business conferences and trade shows fill vast convention halls with booths plugging brands. Eager pilgrims, fresh from cross-country flights or energy-drink fueled drives, wander from table to table, pockets bulging with business cards. Everyone is hoping to strike a deal at a hotel suite afterparty. After the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the trade-show circuit, the rhythm of these show-and-hopefully-sell events appeared to be returning to normal last week with the CHAMPS Trade Show\u2019s visit to Las Vegas. With its busy airport, abundant accommodations and myriad of other distractions, Vegas is the mecca for these… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marijuana_information"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/blockquote>\n
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Booths are being checked for any supply of Delta-8 THC and are being shut down immediately if any are discovered.
Read More: https:\/\/t.co\/qXIzuQsf6d<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/FIHAFpL3yl<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Overall](\"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/champs-las-vegas-2021-delta-8-and-the-dea-raid-rumor.jpg\")
<\/a>New Rules Arriving Fast and Furious<\/strong><\/h4>\n
CBD Edibles Banned<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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What\u2019s the Point?<\/strong><\/h4>\n