HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — A Hot Springs man is speaking out this week, saying that a recent court decision could force him to close his store.

Roger Crawford owns SunMed Modern Wellness in Hot Springs, as well as another location in Orange Beach, Alabama.

The two businesses sell forms of cannabidiol, or CBD, a substance that comes from the cannabis plant but doesn’t get you high.

Crawford said his products, which include CBD gummies, have serious health benefits and even helped him.

“I tried a sample of this product almost six years ago this year, and it absolutely changed my life,” Crawford said. “I put down the synthetics. I’ve been poison free and alcohol free, for two years, six months now, so these products actually saved my life.”

While more research is needed, there is evidence that CBD can help with things like seizures, insomnia and chronic pain.

However, the industry could now be in trouble in Arkansas.

Earlier this week, a federal court decision allowed the state of Arkansas to move forward with Act 629, which was passed in 2023 but had been held up in court.

According to its sponsors, the act bans substances like Delta-8, a substance that is sometimes found in cannabis but is more commonly man-made.

Delta-8 products are not approved by the FDA and are even considered dangerous to children.

“The preliminary junction was wrong,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a press conference celebrating the court’s decision Tuesday. “It shouldn’t have been done. And all during that time the preliminary junction was there, kids were getting hurt. We were unable to fix stuff. Just know there was a price.”

But Crawford said that the 25-page act would ban more than just Delta-8.

“They’re putting verbiage in that legislation,” Crawford said, “Such as ingredients, the process of extraction and things like that, which basically deem all of my products except a few—a handful that’s over here on the shelf—illegal.”

One argument used by Griffin’s office is that products like CBD gummies can be packaged in ways that are misleading to children, which can lead to injury or death.

Crawford said that’s not happening.

“He [Tim Griffin] made a claim that my products are killing people,” Crawford said. “Okay—where are the bodies at? Everybody has the technology, so Google it. Google how many people die from alcohol every day. Google how many people die from tobacco every day. Google how many people die from gun violence every day in the state of Arkansas. Do we have an emergency bans on all of those? No, they’re in every shopping center.”

Crawford appears to have been referring to a comment made about seventeen minutes into Griffin’s press conference where he said, “These hemp derivatives that’ll kill you, half of them, or make you high, or whatever.”

There have been reports of Arkansans being hospitalized as a result of consuming Delta-8-based products, but THV11 was not able to find reports of any deaths related to that product or CBD anywhere in the state.

Griffin said in his press conference that he hopes the ban will go into effect in about eight weeks.

Crawford said if that happens, he’ll either be forced to close down, totally change his business or face jail time.

‘I’ll be a criminal,” Crawford said. “I will be charged criminally for possessing something that God gave us to use, and that is sad, and it’s sickening, and I’m not going out quietly.”

THV11 reached out to the Attorney General’s office for this story and were told they have no further comment beyond what Griffin said in his press conference Tuesday.

A full recap of that can be found here.

The full text of Act 629 can be found here.