As Congress appears headed to shut down the grimy business of intoxicating hemp any day now, the critical question going forward is how much the legitimate market for CBD tinctures, health aids and cosmetics will be affected.
The shady, greedy producers of intoxicating hemp have so thoroughly blurred the definition of “hemp” that Congress is now poised to regulate all hemp-derived cannabinoids as if they were interchangeable.
By pushing delta-8, THCA flower and other synthetic THC variants into gas stations and vape shops under the banner of “hemp,” the intoxicating-hemp sector erased the distinction between psychoactive products and mainstream CBD — and now a federal crackdown aimed at one may affect the other.
A hemp provision tucked inside the broader government funding package was passed by the Senate Monday evening after senators cleared the bill for consideration on Sunday. The Senate voted 76–24 to kill Rand Paul’s amendment that would have removed the hemp language, leaving the restriction intact.
If passed by the House of Representatives and signed into law, the provision would rewrite the 2018 Farm Bill definition of hemp by imposing a total THC limit of 0.4 milligrams per package for any product intended for human or animal use — a standard that would effectively wipe out delta-8, THCA flower and other intoxicating hemp products now sold at retail. The White House told NBC News that Donald Trump “supports the current language in the bill on hemp” that would ban the hemp intoxicants.
The risk to CBD
With the language expected to eliminate intoxicating hemp altogether, the essential question is no longer whether or when the measure will pass. It is what will happen to regular CBD — the lawful, non-intoxicating products people use for sleep, anxiety and pain. Are those products suddenly in the same line of fire as gas-station THC gummies?
Congress is moving to shut down intoxicating hemp by redefining hemp for consumer products and imposing a total THC limit of just 0.4 milligrams per package. That threshold ends the intoxicating-hemp market, because nearly every delta-8 or THCA product exceeds it.
But the language is broad enough that full-spectrum CBD products — legal under the 2018 Farm Bill and sold through mainstream retailers — may also be swept up simply because they contain natural trace THC.
Read more at Hemp Today
