Dear Senator Watson,
I am writing to express my profound concern regarding the passage of HB1376, which effectively bans THCa products in Tennessee. As a constituent and small business owner in Chattanooga’s 37406 ZIP code, this legislation poses an existential threat to my livelihood and the well-being of my community.
I own a hemp store in the Glass Farms neighborhood, an area where the median household income is approximately $42,993, significantly below the Chattanooga city average of $61,028. Our neighborhood faces economic challenges, with a poverty rate exceeding 28 percent. Despite these hardships, our store has become a beacon of hope and progress. We’ve hired directly from the neighborhood, organized cleanups, and run food drives with the Chattanooga Area Food Bank. We’ve also helped neighbors with transportation, job references, and small but real forms of support that make a difference in people’s lives. It’s not charity, it’s what responsible businesses do. And I know you understand that. You’ve served on the Baylor School Board and worked directly with youth through Junior Achievement. You’ve lived the belief that local institutions and small organizations have the power to shape lives.
This business isn’t just how I support my wife, Jana, and our 5-year-old son, Arlo, it’s my livelihood, It’s our stability. It’s how I feed my family. If this bill passes, we will lose it. I want you to picture having to look your wife, Nicole, in the eye and tell her that everything you’ve worked for was taken, not because you broke the law, but because you followed it. Imagine explaining to your son, Grey, that your family’s livelihood was destroyed by lawmakers who claimed to support small business, even after the state passed SB0378, a bill that taxed these exact cannabinoids, gave us the green light to operate, and said: build here. Grow here. Invest here. So we did. Do you plan on compensating us for that time, effort and financial risk? Or is the goal just to legislate more working families into poverty?
We didn’t start selling THCa flower or vapes until SB0378 passed and was signed into law. As soon as the 6 percent tax went into effect, we paid it without hesitation. That first month, we paid $1,100. In December of last year, we paid $4,300, and it just keeps going up. That money should go to schools, to police, to infrastructure. And people are happy to pay it. To me, that tax said: this is here to stay. You can build on this.
Instead, we’ve been stuck in this endless back-and-forth fight over legality. It’s burned time and money. It’s kept us from expanding. We’ve had to cancel planned outreach efforts in the neighborhood. And thousands of dollars that should’ve gone toward local good went into lobbying and compliance just so we could survive.
THCa products make up 90 percent of our sales. This bill, which hands regulation, distribution and tax authority to the alcohol industry, doesn’t “clean up” the market, it wipes out people like me. It wipes out the Tennesseans that built this industry. People that are your constituents, your neighbors. It bans two cannabinoids and leaves others untouched. It doesn’t make products safer or more responsible, it just picks winners and losers.
I know we both agree that we don’t want kids, not mine, not yours, to have easy access to hemp products or alcohol. But this bill doesn’t even begin to address that. It does nothing to restrict sales in gas stations or convenience stores. If the goal was truly to keep these products away from minors, you’d start by regulating the places they’re sold, not by destroying legitimate small businesses that are already complying with state law and paying into the system.
My mother is a retired Methodist preacher. She has preached up and down East Tennessee, and I know you’ve probably been in the pews for one of the services she led, maybe even twice. I bring this up because she raised me to believe in fairness, responsibility and serving our community. The Bible teaches us in Proverbs 31:9: “Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” This bill does the opposite. It punishes those who have followed the law and contributed positively to our community. It doesn’t reflect the values we were taught.
You went to Baylor. I went to McCallie. We may have worn different colors on game day, but we were both taught the same thing: be a good steward of your community. At McCallie our motto is Honor, Truth, Duty - so I have to ask if Baylor has a motto and if you have lived by it? You’ve said, “What everyone needs to understand is that federal tax dollars that come back to Tennessee are Tennessee taxpayer dollars, and so if you elect not to take those dollars… you have to realize you’re sending that money somewhere else.” You were talking about education funding, and you were right. But the same logic applies here. Tennesseans are paying the hemp tax. That money is already going into the system. Killing this industry means rejecting your own argument. You don’t get to say we need funding for teachers and police, and then turn your back on a massive revenue stream Tennesseans are voluntarily providing. You don’t get to send that money somewhere else.
I’m asking you directly: please vote no on HB1376, or kill it outright. You can’t campaign on better pay for teachers, police, or law enforcement while turning away $250 million in annual tax revenue from hemp, revenue Tennesseans are willingly paying. Don’t kill the businesses doing it right, and don’t walk away from what your own constituents built with the laws you passed.
Benjamin A. Whitelaw