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(FOX 9) – A new cannabis complication is numbing the excitement of people hoping to launch with new licenses in the coming weeks and months.

THC Trouble

Hemp hardship:

St. Paul Cannabis has stayed afloat for 2.5 years by selling hemp-derived THC drinks and edibles.

David Mendolia is on the road to adding a retail marijuana license, but hopes to keep one foot in both worlds.

“We want to continue to offer all the things that we’ve been offering that are customer favorites, that people really like,” Mendolia said.

A couple of problems stand in his way, though.

Hemp businesses have to be licensed starting in October and the Office of Cannabis Management recently shared the rules for sales.

Labels will have to include most of the same information required on cannabis products.

Impossible task?

Label losers:

But Mendolia says it’s impossible to meet a requirement to include license numbers for all businesses involved in producing the products from seed to sale.

Hemp is federally legal, but other states don’t license hemp producers and Minnesota hasn’t issued licenses yet.

“That is to say, if I receive the license tomorrow, all the product in the store is currently illegal,” said Mendolia.

A spokesperson for the Office of Cannabis Management told FOX 9 the law is the law.

Nobody would be allowed to sell products without the right licensing and the right labeling.

Mendolia’s hoping for a quick fix to the rules so he doesn’t have to destroy all his inventory and start over.

“That’s just that the state’s not going to do that,” he said. “The industry is not going to let the state do that.”

In-state advantage?

Middleman added:

Sourcing hemp from out-of-state will become pretty expensive under the new licensing law.

Patty Gilk has stocked three Jes Naturals stores with the best hemp-derived products she can find at the best prices across the country.

But in October, she’ll either need to buy a distributor’s license at $10,000 a year, or find a middleman with that license.

“It would significantly reduce the number of products we can offer our customers,” Gilk said. “Or make them so costly we couldn’t be competitive.”

Added complaints

Tax talk:

Just about everybody in the industry is also concerned about the increased cannabis tax, which applies to marijuana and hemp-derived products — even non-intoxicating CBD.

It goes from 10% to 15% starting in July.