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Hemp businesses, marijuana companies, state regulators, prohibitionists and congressional lawmakers are all vying to have their cannabis priorities represented in the forthcoming Farm Bill. But while there are shared interests among certain stakeholders, some competing proposals have created tension in unexpected ways.<\/p>\n
The hemp industry, for example, is at odds with select marijuana companies that are aligned with prohibitionists\u2014with the strange bedfellows in agreement on proposed restrictions on intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolicy challenges related to hemp are complex, and several steps are required to fully address them,\u201d U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC) Executive Director Edward Conklin said in a letter to congressional leaders last month. \u201cHowever, the most important and time-sensitive of those steps is within your control and well within the authority of the Farm Bill: Close the loophole created by the current definition of hemp established by the 2018 Farm Bill and create a regulatory pathway for non-intoxicating products.\u201d<\/p>\n
The language recommended by USCC, which represents major cannabis companies, would remove intoxicating cannabinoid products intended for consumption from the definition of federally legal hemp and reclassify them as federally illegal marijuana products.<\/p>\n
Likewise, the prohibitionist Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) sent out an alert to supporters last week saying they \u201cstrongly recommend that the loophole caused by the 2018 Farm Bill definition of hemp be closed by adding clarifying language to the 2024 Farm Bill definition of hemp to explicitly exclude intoxicating semi-synthetic cannabinoids derived from hemp.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hemp stakeholders, including the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, meanwhile, recognize that the current statute has allowed an unregulated cannabinoid market to proliferate\u2014sometimes inviting bad actors to the table. But rather than impose an outright ban, which would have a major economic impact on an already struggling market, they\u2019ve proposed enacting robust regulations to mitigate public health and safety concerns.<\/p>\n
Shortly after Senate Democrats released a summary of their Farm Bill draft<\/a>, the association applauded descriptions of provisions to eliminate a ban on industry participation by people with drug-related felonies on their record and reduced regulatory barriers for hemp farmers growing for grain or fiber. It also noted that the summary didn\u2019t signal any substantive change to the definition of hemp that could impact the cannabinoid market.<\/p>\n \u201cSome marijuana organizations have joined prohibitionists to propose bans that could federally criminalize products with any amount of THC, even non-intoxicating full spectrum CBD products,\u201d the Roundtable said. \u201cWe continue to lobby Congress against such restrictions and are hopeful that our approach\u2014regulating all products and keeping products that may impair out of the hands of children\u2014will prevail in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n Jonathan Miller, general counsel for the Roundtable, told Marijuana Moment it\u2019s important to remember that \u201cthe marijuana industry is not monolithic,\u201d and there are many instances of overlap between the hemp and marijuana sectors.<\/p>\n \u201cBut there certainly are some organizations and companies in the marijuana space that view adult hemp products as competition and are upset that there\u2019s less regulation of the hemp products than there are the marijuana products, and so they\u2019ve come to the conclusion that we need to federally ban all these hemp products,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n At the same time, \u201cthere are a lot of marijuana companies who are getting into the hemp space, and the general agreement of the hemp industry and these marijuana companies is: Let\u2019s not go to prohibition, let\u2019s regulate,\u201d Miller said. \u201cAnd this is what the U.S. Hemp Roundtable has been arguing for years.\u201d<\/p>\n David Culver, senior vice president for USCC, the marijuana industry group, told Marijuana Moment that his organization \u201csupports a uniform approach to THC products.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat means intoxicating hemp products should be regulated the same as cannabis products,\u201d he said. \u201cWe believe that all of these products should be available for sale to adults with strict age gating and safety standards. Closing the perceived loophole in the Farm Bill would create parity and facilitate state-level regulation, followed by eventual federal legalization of all THC products.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, marijuana is not currently federally legal and regulated with age limits as USCC desires. And so by putting intoxicating hemp products on par with marijuana again under the Controlled Substances Act, the organization\u2019s proposal would amount to putting a national prohibition back on the books by removing the exemption from the federal definition of marijuana that hemp derivatives currently enjoy.<\/p>\n The House Agriculture Committee didn\u2019t make any mention of hemp policy in its initial Farm Bill summary document circulated earlier this month. Nor did it include the policy issue in an updated and expanded summary that was released on Friday. Politico reported<\/a> last week that the chair of that panel, Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) said that hemp is one of the final issues members are working to resolve in their draft.<\/p>\n Thompson also said that he\u2019s heard from members on both sides of the aisle who support and oppose redefining hemp to close a \u201cloophole\u201d on intoxicating products.<\/p>\n As of now, it\u2019s not clear from the documents posted by the House and Senate committees what language addressing the definition of hemp could actually be in the chambers\u2019 respective Farm Bill legislation when the proposals are unveiled.<\/p>\n But with a House committee markup scheduled for next Thursday, it will soon be revealed where that panel falls on the issue.<\/p>\n Reid Stewart, CEO of cannabis concentrate manufacturer Frozen Fields, said in a press release last week that the \u201cambiguity\u201d of the Senate summary on hemp redefinition \u201cis alarming for the hemp industry, especially considering the potential implications.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe proposed redefinition of hemp could jeopardize the livelihoods of over 50,000 small businesses that sprang up following previous legislation,\u201d he said. \u201cIt seems counterproductive for the federal government to potentially criminalize hemp\u2014an industry born from laws it enacted, especially when past policies on similar issues have not only failed but also contributed to the mass incarceration of hundreds of thousands of people.\u201d<\/p>\n State marijuana regulators, meanwhile, are proposing a different kind of remedy, calling on Congress to update the agriculture legislation with legislation clarifying states\u2019 rights to enact their own regulations for hemp-based intoxicating cannabinoids, citing instances where there\u2019s been litigation asserting that federal law preempts such rulemaking.<\/p>\n \u201cFederal clarification of states\u2019 existing authority is thus essential to allow states to continue to protect public health and integrity in the hemp industry\u2014as the 2018 Farm Bill always intended,\u201d three executives with the Cannabis Regulators Association (CANNRA) said<\/a> in a letter to congressional leaders on Monday.<\/p>\n CANNRA had previously recommended to Congress in a letter last year that lawmakers adjust the federal definition of hemp<\/a> and modify rules around hemp-derived cannabinoids.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Congressional Climate Solutions Caucus also sent a letter<\/a> to leaders of the House Agriculture Committee late last week that urged them to attach to the Farm Bill language from separate bipartisan legislation that would reduce regulations on farmers that grow industrial hemp for non-extraction purposes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Under the standalone bicameral measures, farmers that cultivate industrial hemp would no longer be subject to background checks<\/a>\u00a0in order to participate in the market, and they wouldn\u2019t have to fulfill rigorous sampling and testing requirements.<\/p>\n Separately, with respect to lifting the felony conviction ban for hemp farmers as described in the Senate Farm Bill summary, Reps. David Trone (D-MD), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Dave Joyce (R-OH) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) introduced the \u201cFree to Grow Act\u201d last year<\/a>. They said upon introduction that it would end what they called a \u201cdiscriminatory\u201d federal policy barring people with prior felony drug convictions from owning or leading legal hemp businesses.<\/p>\n Pingree also introduced legislation last session titled the \u201cHemp Advancement Act\u201d that would\u00a0reduce regulatory barriers for hemp farmers cultivating the crop for fiber or grain<\/a>, while enacting other changes favored by stakeholders such as increasing the THC threshold for legal hemp from 0.3 percent THC by dry weight to one percent.<\/p>\n Lawmakers and stakeholders have also been eyeing a number of other proposals that could be incorporated into the Farm Bill, including measures to\u00a0free up hemp businesses to legally market products like CBD<\/a>\u00a0as dietary supplements or in the food supply.<\/p>\n \u2014 Meanwhile, the hemp market started to rebound in 2023 after suffering significant losses the prior year, the\u00a0latest annual industry report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)<\/a>\u00a0that was released last month found.<\/p>\n The\u00a0data\u00a0is the\u00a0result\u00a0of a\u00a0survey that USDA mailed to thousands of hemp farmers\u00a0across the U.S.<\/a>\u00a0in January. The\u00a0first version of the department\u2019s hemp report<\/a>\u00a0was released in early 2022, setting a \u201cbenchmark\u201d to compare to as the industry matures.<\/p>\n Bipartisan lawmakers and industry stakeholders have sharply criticized FDA for declining to enact regulations for hemp-derived CBD, which they say is largely responsible for the economic stagnation.<\/p>\n To that end,\u00a0FDA Commissioner Robert Califf testified before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee<\/a>\u00a0last month, where he faced questions about the agency\u2019s position that it needed additional congressional authorization to regulate the non-intoxicating cannabinoid.<\/p>\n USDA is also reportedly\u00a0revoking hemp licenses for farmers who are simultaneously growing marijuana<\/a>\u00a0under state-approved programs, underscoring yet another policy conflict stemming from the ongoing federal prohibition of some forms of the cannabis plant.<\/p>\n For the time being, the hemp industry continues to face unique regulatory hurdles that stakeholders blame for the crop\u2019s value plummeting in the short years since its legalization. Despite the economic conditions, however, a recent report found that\u00a0the hemp market in 2022 was larger than all state marijuana markets<\/a>, and it roughly equaled sales for craft beer nationally.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, internally at USDA, food safety workers are being\u00a0encouraged to exercise caution and avoid cannabis products<\/a>, including federally legal CBD, as the agency observes an \u201cuptick\u201d in positive THC tests amid \u201cconfusion\u201d as more states enact legalization<\/p>\n House Committee Proposes Ending Marijuana Testing For Military Recruits In Defense Bill<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Pixabay<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Hemp Industry Pushes Back Against Marijuana Companies Advocating For Intoxicating Cannabinoid Ban In Farm Bill<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Hemp businesses, marijuana companies, state regulators, prohibitionists and congressional lawmakers are all vying to have their cannabis priorities represented in the forthcoming Farm Bill. But while there are shared interests among certain stakeholders, some competing proposals have created tension in unexpected ways. The hemp industry, for example, is at oddsContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":75328,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75327"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75329,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75327\/revisions\/75329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Hemp Industry Pushes Back Against Marijuana Companies Advocating For Intoxicating Cannabinoid Ban In Farm Bill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"