President Donald Trump signed\u00a0a spending measure Nov. 12, funding federal operations through January and\u00a0ending\u00a0the longest government shutdown in US history after 43 days. The Senate had approved the measure the previous day, with seven Democrats crossing party lines to reach the needed 60-vote majority. They were won over by a Republican\u00a0pledge\u00a0to revisit the question of subsidies for Obamacare in December.<\/p>\n
However, a sideshow to the fight over the Affordable Care Act is causing outrage in the hemp industry\u2014and among farmers in hemp-producing states like Kentucky. A last-minute provision added to the spending bill<\/a> will effectively ban all hemp-derived THC products.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n This concerns what has been derided as a \u201cloophole\u201d in the 2018 Farm Bill that\u00a0legalized\u00a0the production of industrial hemp<\/a> in the United States. The Farm Bill kept the federal ban on cannabis and cannabis products with more than 0.3% Delta-9 THC\u2014and on Delta-9 THC itself, whether derived from hemp or \u201cmarijuana.\u201d However, in a measure intended to legalize the CBD market, it allowed extraction and sale of cannabinoids other than Delta-9 THC, if derived from hemp.\u00a0<\/p>\n This had an unanticipated effect. In the wake of the 2018 law, an industry suddenly boomed around hemp-derived cannabinoid products\u2014and not just CBD but psychoactive THC. Particularly at issue was\u00a0Delta-8 THC<\/a>, an isomer of Delta-9, which behaves much the same way in the human organism. Products containing Delta-8 were suddenly available in convenience stores, gas stations and truck stops coast to coast.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A backlash also quickly emerged. Critics\u00a0argued<\/a>\u00a0that because the industry was essentially using a subterfuge to skirt the law, these new products were basically\u00a0unregulated<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The new law contains a provision added to Agriculture Department funding that restricts hemp and hemp-derived products to those containing low concentrations of all THC\u2014not just Delta-9 THC. It is to take effect on Nov. 12, 2026, one year from the date of signing.\u00a0<\/p>\n The new provision \u201cprevents the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products, including Delta-8, from being sold online, in gas stations, and corner stores, while preserving non-intoxicating CBD and industrial hemp products,\u201d reads a Senate Appropriations Committee summary.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Media reports warn of an \u201cextinction-level event<\/a>\u201d for the hemp industry when the provision kicks in.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kentucky\u2019s Republican Sen. Rand Paul\u00a0pushed an amendment<\/a>\u00a0to strip the provision from the bill, but this failed in a 76-24 vote. And his principal opponent was fellow Bluegrass State GOP senator, Mitch McConnell\u2014who had championed the 2018 Farm Bill as then-majority leader of the Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0Louisville Courier-Journal<\/a>\u00a0quoted Kentucky farmers fearing that the new law could be a \u201cdeath sentence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The move is also meeting with pushback in Texas, where the GOP-dominated political establishment is divided over an effort to ban Delta-8 at the state level. Officials with the Texas chapter of the\u00a0Veterans of Foreign Wars<\/a>\u00a0told Waco\u2019s\u00a0KWTX<\/a>\u00a0that many vets use hemp-derived THC products to treat PTSD and other ailments related to their service.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat in the world just happened last night?\u201d Thus\u00a0responded<\/a>\u00a0Mitch Fuller, legislative chair for\u00a0Texas VFW<\/a>, after the Congressional logjam broke. Fuller had successfully lobbied Gov. Greg Abbott to\u00a0veto the Delta-8 ban<\/a>\u00a0in the statehouse earlier this year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Abbott\u2019s big rival on the question in his own administration was Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who had pushed for the state ban and enthused in a\u00a0tweet<\/a> about the federal one after it passed: \u201cAs part of the resolution, consumable, highly intoxicating hemp-derived THC is essentially banned in America. Farmers are protected to produce industrial products. CBD and CBG are still legal. However, Delta-8, Delta-10, and candies, snacks, and gummies with high dosages of intoxicating THC are all banned. Hemp-derived Delta-9 will only be allowed to be sold in very low, non-intoxicating dosages.\u201d (This is a reference to the 0.3% cap, well below the threshold for any psychoactive effect.)<\/p>\n Mitch Fuller retorted: \u201cOf course, safety is important, of course children not having access to this is important. But let\u2019s not use a chain-saw approach to this, let\u2019s use a scalpel approach to it, and regulate it.\u201d<\/p>\n The VFW chapter said they will use the year before the ban takes effect to organize pressure to have it reversed.<\/p>\n The hemp and cannabis industries are, predictably, distressed over the new measure. Adam Stettner, CEO of financial lender\u00a0FundCanna,<\/a>\u00a0said in a statement: \u201cBanning intoxicating hemp through a government funding bill isn\u2019t policymaking; it\u2019s panic disguised as progress. You can\u2019t erase a $28 billion market or the millions of consumers who already exist. You can only decide whether those dollars flow through legal, regulated channels or into the shadows. You\u2019re kidding yourself if you think consumers will stop buying hemp beverages, gummies or wellness products because Congress flipped a switch.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Stettner raised the specter of backsliding toward prohibition: \u201cDismantling compliant supply chains won\u2019t make these products disappear; it will make them untraceable, untaxed and unsafe. What we need isn\u2019t a ban, it\u2019s balance and logic. If lawmakers want safer products and clearer rules, they need to regulate, not eradicate. The responsible path forward is to regulate hemp like we do alcohol or caffeine at the federal level, with age limits, testing and labeling. Inserting a blanket prohibition by sneaking it into a budget deal won\u2019t work; prohibition never works.\u201d<\/p>\n Thomas Winstanley, executive vice president of infused products purveyor\u00a0Edibles.com<\/a>, emphasized the ironic role of the former Senate majority leader, who has announced that he will retire next year.<\/p>\n \u201cMitch McConnell has once again proven himself the architect of the law of unintended consequences,\u201d Winstanley said. \u201cWhen he introduced the 2018 Farm Bill, it was celebrated as a lifeline for America\u2019s farmers\u2014a rare bipartisan achievement that gave rural communities a new cash crop and built a thriving, homegrown industry. What no one expected was that it would also ignite a $28 billion consumer market, create over 300,000 American jobs, and form a domestic supply chain rooted in U.S. agriculture and innovation. That was the first unintended consequence, a positive one. Today, history repeats itself, but this time, the fallout will be devastating. By attaching a sweeping hemp restriction to the government spending bill, McConnell has chosen to end his career by crippling the very industry he created.\u201d<\/p>\n He too pledged to use the one-year grace period to organize resistance: \u201cFarmers, brands, and consumers, once fragmented, are now mobilizing together to defend what they\u2019ve built and to finally push for the federal framework the hemp industry has long demanded.\u201d<\/p>\n The post New Legislation Bans Hemp-Derived THC<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump signed\u00a0a spending measure Nov. 12, funding federal operations through January and\u00a0ending\u00a0the longest government shutdown in US history after 43 days. The Senate had approved the measure the previous day, with seven Democrats crossing party lines to reach the needed 60-vote majority. They were won over by aContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[605,50,136,2635,4347,95,4154,7149,296,699,81,726,420],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84390"}],"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\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84390"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84391,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84390\/revisions\/84391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Dreaded \u2018Loophole\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Bluegrass Senators at Odds<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Industry Voices Sound Alarm<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h4>\n
\n
\nRead More: New Legislation Bans Hemp-Derived THC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"