Hemp THC ‘prohibition’ looms as U.S. Senate closes 2018 Farm Bill ‘loophole’
Nearly all hemp-derived THC products in the U.S. will become illegal in late 2026 under legislation passed by the U.S. Senate late Monday.
Tucked into spending bills meant to end the record-long government shutdown, language redefining “hemp” to exclude the numerous intoxicating hemp products that have proliferated across the country since the 2018 Farm Bill passed by a 60-40 vote.
Every hemp ‘plant would have to be destroyed’
To stop it, lawmakers in the Republican-controlled House would have to defy President Donald Trump.
Trump supports the hemp ban, a White House official told NBC News on Monday.
The bill, which takes effect 365 days after passage, “makes the hemp industry kaput,” Paul said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote.
The new limits “will eliminate 100% of the hemp products in our country,” he said.
“Every (hemp) plant in the country will have to be destroyed.”
Operators “should prepare for the real possibility that their products will lose the safe harbor under the current 2018 Farm Bill,” said attorney Seth Goldberg, co-chair of the cannabis and hemp practice at Philadelphia-based Pashman Stein Walder Hayden.
“It would be prudent for hemp-related companies to begin thinking through how such changes will impact various aspects of their business,” he added.
That would include small businesses across the country as well as major retailers like Total Wine & Spirits and Circle K that carry hemp-derived beverages.
Closes 2018 Farm Bill loophole for THCA and synthetics like THC-P
The ban language is in the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act that appeared in the Senate Appropriations committee over the weekend.
The bill’s redefinition would also override and nullify state law regulating hemp products, such as the increasingly popular hemp-derived THC beverages sold by major mainstream retailers, including Target.
It redefines “hemp” as only “the plant Cannabis sativa… and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids… with a total tetrahydrocannabinols concentration (including tetrahydrocannabinolic acid) of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.”
That would close the THCA loophole that some merchants use to sell THCA flower online and outside of state-regulated marijuana channels.
The nationwide “THCA flower” market by itself is worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually, according to one estimate.