Family Video ordered to cease selling CBD oil products

The Family Video in Newton recently decided it would follow direction from corporate headquarters and sell cannabidiol (CBD) oil at its location but were quickly shut down with a cease and desist letter from the county attorney’s office.

The Family Video chain upper management decided they wanted to offer support to the CBD industry as believers in the benefits the products have provided for those in society. Therefore, management wanted all stores to carry these products.

“They have stores all around the Midwest so it’s not just Iowa,” P.J. Todd, manager of the Newton and Grinnell Family Video, said.

According to Todd, the Newton store received the products including items like lip balm but they were only able to have the products in the store a couple of days with minimal sales.

“Three days at the most ... I sold a couple of tubes of chap stick ... I just shipped it off to another store,” Todd said.

The store also received training when the products rolled out in the store and the store did extensive work promoting the fact it had CBD products. According to Todd, they also had a sign out front stating they had the products.

The Family Video in Newton was given a letter from the Jasper County Attorney’s Office detailing they needed to stop the sale of the CBD products in their store and they were given 30 days to remove it.

“With some of the new passage of the laws regarding those products in Iowa that there may have been confusion,” assistant county attorney Peter Blink said.

Essentially what the letter was meant to do was the give the store a warning it needed to stop what they were doing so legal action wouldn’t be pursued against the store.

“Essentially that is a ‘hey just in case you were mistaken’ and it was a good faith mistake we understand how that could be made, however it is illegal and if they continue to do that then they would face the criminal consequences,” Blink said.

The confusion comes with the changes in state legislation and whether or not CBD products are legal to be sold or purchased throughout Iowa, which is what led to the response from the county attorney’s office.

“The CBD issue made news all over the state because people didn’t know if it was legal or illegal,” Blink said.

While the situation is now resolved as no more CBD products are available in the store there is still confusion going on as customers are calling or stopping in wondering why the CBD products are no longer available.

“We went all out. I mean we had signs out front ... I still have people calling here ‘hey do you guys have any CBD?’” Todd said. “I think it’s unfortunate.”

Contact Dustin Teays at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or dteays@newtondailynews.com