A Republican senator who says he has a \u201cgreat relationship\u201d with President Donald Trump nonetheless is publicly saying he thinks the president is confused about the effects of hemp products.<\/p>\n
Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC), who recently led an unsuccessful effort to keep the federal recriminalization of hemp THC products on track<\/a> for November as scheduled, said in an interview with Spectrum News that he thinks Trump has been \u201cmisinformed by his staff\u201d about the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cThe president\u2019s got a million things going on. He\u2019s trying to fix a lot of problems, including a 50-year Iran problem,\u201d Budd said. \u201cSo we want to support him on those things\u2014but when he\u2019s misinformed, unfortunately, by those in the staff, in the staff in the White House, it\u2019s very unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n Hemp derivatives with less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC on a dry-weight basis were federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill that President Donald Trump signed during his first term in office. But late last year, the president signed new legislation containing provisions that will redefine hemp to make it so only products with 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container will remain legal after November 12.<\/p>\n The Senate over the weekend, however, approved a funding bill that includes a provision to delay the effective date of the hemp product ban<\/a> until December 11\u2014a move that was supported by the White House. Budd had filed an amendment to strip that language and keep the prohibition on track as scheduled, but the body approved a motion to table the proposal in a vote of 61-32.<\/p>\n Ahead of the vote, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Mehmet Oz sent a letter to senators expressing \u201cgrave concern\u201d that the amendment would undermine the administration\u2019s initiative<\/a>\u00a0to cover hemp-derived products through Medicare.<\/p>\n Budd, for his part, claimed in the new interview that the focus on CBD was off the mark.<\/p>\n \u201cThe president says, \u2018Can you not just help those that are age 65 and older, and maybe some veterans that need help with some of these THC-related treatments?’\u201d the senator said. \u201cLook, if Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Studies [sic] want to actually focus on this, and they want to do a controlled study, that\u2019s okay. We can actually do a carve out for that. But what he\u2019s asking for is not what the bill is.\u201d<\/p>\n