Mission & background
The laws changed. Nobody was watching.
AWARE was built because the people most affected by hemp and vapor legislation had no centralized, cited, nonpartisan source to track what was happening — or tools to do anything about it.
The problem
Why this platform had to exist.
In 2025, Alabama passed two major laws that restructured how hemp and vapor products are regulated, licensed, and taxed. Most of the businesses and consumers affected learned about it after the fact. That's not a communication failure — it's a structural one.
Laws written without evidence
Too many bills affecting hemp and vapor products are introduced by legislators who have never read the research they claim to cite. Committee hearings reference headlines instead of studies. Floor speeches conflate legal hemp derivatives with illegal drugs, and regulated vapor products with unregulated black-market devices.
Agencies that profit from prohibition
When enforcement agencies collect licensing fees, surety bonds, and civil penalties, they have a financial incentive to expand their jurisdiction and increase the cost of compliance. Regulation should protect the public — not fund the regulator at the expense of the regulated.
Citizens locked out of the process
Committee hearings happen on weekday mornings in Montgomery. Bill text is buried in legislative databases behind inconsistent search tools. Most constituents don't know their state representative's name, much less how to submit testimony before a committee vote. The process technically allows participation but practically excludes it.
No single source for both industries
Hemp advocacy organizations don't track vapor legislation. Vape industry groups don't follow agricultural policy. But the same retailers sell both products, the same legislators write rules for both, and the same consumers buy both. No organization was built to serve that overlap.
Background
How we got here.
The regulatory landscape for hemp and vapor products didn't emerge overnight. A decade of federal and state action created the conditions that make an accountability platform necessary.
The 2014 Farm Bill authorized state hemp pilot programs, opening the door for Alabama farmers to begin cultivating industrial hemp under USDA oversight.
Alabama launched its industrial hemp pilot program through ADAI. Farmers began investing in infrastructure, equipment, and crop rotations for hemp cultivation.
The 2018 Farm Bill removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and established it as a legal agricultural commodity. Thousands of businesses formed around hemp-derived products nationwide.
The FDA set premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) deadlines for vapor products, creating massive regulatory uncertainty for independent vape retailers and manufacturers.
Federal law raised the minimum age for tobacco and vapor product purchases to 21. Youth access became a federal enforcement issue, yet states and cities continued passing redundant or conflicting local restrictions.
Alabama passed Act 2025-385 (HB 445), overhauling hemp regulation. The ABC Board took over consumer product licensing with $1,000 annual fees, $25,000 surety bonds, and municipal opt-out provisions that could eliminate retail access in entire communities.
Alabama passed Act 2025-403, restructuring vapor product regulation under the ABC Board. Combined with Act 2025-377 establishing a $0.10/mL excise tax, independent vape shops faced a new layer of state licensing on top of existing federal FDA requirements.
AWARE launched to fill the gap that no existing organization covered: a single platform that tracks hemp and vapor legislation separately, cites every source, and gives citizens the tools to respond before votes happen.
Our approach
What AWARE does differently.
We don't lobby. We don't endorse candidates. We don't sell products. We build infrastructure that makes civic participation possible for the people most affected by legislation they didn't know was coming.
Cite everything
Every claim on this platform links to its source — bill text, government data, agency rules, or peer-reviewed research. If a claim can't be cited, it doesn't appear. If evidence is mixed or inconclusive, we say so explicitly.
Separate the industries
Hemp policy and vapor policy have different regulatory frameworks, different stakeholders, and different arguments for protection. We track them in separate trackers, write separate analyses, and build separate talking points. Combining them weakens both.
Build tools, not opinions
We don't tell you what to think about a bill. We show you its text, its status, its committee assignment, and its sponsors. We find your representative's email and phone number. We pre-fill a message you can edit. What you do with it is your decision as a constituent.
Cover every jurisdiction
Legislation that affects you might be a state bill in Montgomery, a federal rule from the FDA, or a city council ordinance two blocks from your business. We track all three levels — state, federal, and local — across 660+ Alabama jurisdictions and growing.
Open by default
Our data sources, methodology, and operating budget are public. Every page pulls from documented APIs — LegiScan, Congress.gov, ALISON, U.S. Census. We don't ask you to trust us. We show the work so you can verify it.
Make participation possible
Enter your address. We find your state house rep, state senator, and federal delegation. Pick the bills that affect you. We build the email. You review it, edit it if you want, and send it. The entire process takes less time than reading this paragraph.
Hemp regulation
Three agencies, overlapping rules.
ADAI — Cultivation
The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries licenses hemp growers and oversees field cultivation under the USDA framework. They handle planting permits, THC compliance testing, and crop destruction orders.
ABC Board — Consumer Products
Under Act 2025-385, the Alabama ABC Board licenses retailers, processors, and distributors of consumer hemp products. Annual fees start at $1,000 with a $25,000 surety bond requirement. Municipalities can opt out of retail licensing entirely.
ALEA — Enforcement
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency handles criminal enforcement of hemp regulations, including penalties for selling non-compliant products or operating without a license.
Vapor product regulation
Federal floor, state overlay, local patches.
FDA — Federal Baseline
The FDA regulates vapor products through the Premarket Tobacco Product Application (PMTA) process. Tobacco 21 is federal law. Every legal sale already requires ID verification for buyers 21 and older.
ABC Board — State Licensing
Act 2025-403 moved vapor product licensing under the ABC Board. Retailers must obtain state licenses on top of existing federal compliance. Act 2025-377 added a $0.10/mL excise tax on e-liquid.
Local Governments — Patchwork
Counties and cities can impose additional licensing requirements, zoning restrictions, flavor limitations, and business-hour regulations. A shop can be compliant at the federal and state level and still be forced out by a local ordinance.
Accountability
Every legislator who votes on these industries should be able to explain the difference between them.
Hemp regulation is agricultural policy. Vapor product regulation is public health and consumer safety policy. They share a legislature, but they don't share a framework. Legislators who conflate them are either uninformed or counting on their constituents to be. AWARE exists to close that gap.
Platform coverage
What you can do here.
Track legislation
State, federal, and local bills tracked in real-time with status updates, committee assignments, and sponsor data.
Find your representatives
Enter your address to find your state house rep, state senator, and federal delegation with contact information.
Take action
Select the bills that affect you. We build the email, find the right legislator, and let you send it in minutes.
Read the research
Fact sheets, regulatory guides, and policy analyses — every claim cited to a primary source you can verify.
Monitor local policy
660+ Alabama jurisdictions mapped. Track county and city ordinances that affect your business or community.
Get alerts
Choose hemp, vape, or both. When a bill moves, you get a concise, cited update — not a fundraising email.
This is a one-person operation with a full-platform output.
AWARE is built and maintained by a single person. Every line of code, every data pipeline, every policy analysis, every design decision. That's not a limitation — it's a statement about what's possible when the work is focused and the mission is clear.
If you believe citizens deserve better tools than the industries spending millions on lobbyists, there are ways to help.
Nonprofit status
501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization
AWARE is organized exclusively for educational and civic engagement purposes. We don't endorse candidates, don't engage in substantial lobbying, and don't sell products. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Data sources: LegiScan, Congress.gov, ALISON, U.S. Census Bureau
Jurisdiction: Alabama (active) · 5 Southeast states (planned)
Contact: info@awaresoutheast.org