The hemp industry was rocked this week when the federal government approved a bill that would effectively ban intoxicating hemp-derived products. Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, once hailed as a “hero” for championing hemp in his home state of Kentucky, tucked a provision into the spending package to end the government shutdown that would make Delta-8, CBD, and other cannabinoids extracted from hemp illegal under federal law as of November 2026.
The market for intoxicating products derived from hemp is relatively new. The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp by defining it as cannabis containing less than .03 percent THC by dry weight; a section of the bill removed hemp from its Schedule I status under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Botanically, it’s all the same plant, Cannabis sativa, but the reasoning was that no one was going to get high on an agricultural commodity destined for use in textiles, animal feed, and CBD wellness supplements.
However, enterprising businesses quickly found a loophole by extracting Delta-8-THC from low-potency industrial hemp. Delta-8 is similar in chemical composition to Delta-9-THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana, and offers a comparatively mild high. The quasi-legality of Delta-8 gave rise to a massive industry of intoxicating hemp-derived gummies, concentrates, and vapes for sale at gas stations and convenience stores around the country without any of the regulations imposed on cannabis products, despite warnings from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Center for Disease Control about potential negative health effects.
This week, Congress voted to close the hemp-derived THC loophole, shooting down a proposed amendment from Sen. Rand Paul that would have eliminated language around hemp products. The revised policy, set to take effect a year from now, would ban all hemp-derived products containing more than 0.4 mg of total THC per container, making it essentially impossible to manufacture or distribute intoxicating hemp products outside of state-legal marijuana markets. Nearly half of all states have imposed restrictions on Delta-8 since 2018; to date, 24 states have legalized recreational cannabis, and medical cannabis is available in some form in 42 states.
The $28 billion American hemp industry employs 300,000 people, and plenty of them are pissed at the government crackdown. “Job-killing Republicans are at it again,” Wisconsin State Senator Chris Larson wrote on Threads. “In Wisconsin, this [bill] means hundreds of small businesses, thousands of jobs, and millions of dollars of economic activity are at risk of disappearing in a flash.” The industry coalition U.S. Hemp Roundtable condemned thevote in a press release claiming that “this legislation would wipe out 95 percent of the industry, shuttering small businesses and American farms while costing states $1.5 billion in lost tax revenue.”
Others say that regulation is necessary to protect the industry from legally questionable compounds like Delta-8-THC. Under the new provisions, intoxicating hemp would fall under state marijuana laws, which would be a good thing, according to Chris Lindsey, vice president of policy and state advocacy at the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp (ATACH). Lindsey experienced the pitfalls of the grey market himself when he was slapped with federal charges for operating a state-legal marijuana business in Montana in 2011. When he opened his store, locals were supportive, Lindsey says, but public opinion shifted when other shops started advertising cheap weed. “In a situation where there are no rules, you’ll be judged by the worst actors among you,” Lindsey says. “When I see Delta-8 gummies at the gas station, I’m like, you realize the federal law has never changed?” He believes the hemp industry will face significant issues as long as cannabis is federally illegal. “We’re not far away from serious trouble if somebody decides to go after the pot people again,” he warns. “I don’t want to get confused with some chemist in a basement who sees a lane because he gets to call his bullshit hemp.” Lindsey says that ATACH looks forward to working with policymakers to develop a sensible federal policy for both hemp and cannabis.
Jake Bullock, co-founder and CEO of CANN, a low-dose THC beverage, agrees that oversight is critical for the hemp industry. “Part of the reason the industry finds itself in a mess today is because it didn’t do a good job policing bad actors,” he says. “Our job is to fight for regulations that make sense.” Bullock thinks hemp-derived drinks like CANN, which is available online and in liquor and grocery stores in 30-plus states, should fall under the same laws as alcohol. “Consumers think of us as an alcohol alternative,” he says. “Give us those rules, we’ll follow them.” He says the new provisions outline a “one-year shot clock for CANN to get the rules we’ve always wanted. If we don’t get those rules, the whole hemp industry is going away, so there’s definitely some pressure.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell was praised by advocates and farmers for stewarding the hemp provision into law under the 2018 Farm Bill. Why, then, did he push for provisions that could outlaw hemp as soon as next year? According to McConnell, the new bill closes a loophole he never intended to open when he advocated for hemp as an agricultural commodity for use in textiles, building materials, and other non-intoxicating products. “I am proud to have championed this language that keeps these products out of the hands of children, secures the future of regulated hemp businesses, and keeps our promise to American farmers and law enforcement by clarifying the intention in the 2018 Farm Bill,” he said this week.
When Trump signed the bill reversing policy enacted by his first administration in 2018, he effectively recriminalized hemp-derived CBD, along with Delta-8 and other hemp extracts. Activists pushed for the FDA to regulate CBD, but the agency claimed that the compound has too many safety unknowns to be regulated as a food ingredient or supplement and kicked oversight back to Congress. Now, industry advocates are concerned that trace levels of THC above the .04 mg per container mark will subject CBD, which is marketed as non-intoxicating, to the same rules as hemp-derived consumables like Delta-8. Reclassifying cannabis from Schedule I to a Schedule III substance, as the Department of Health and Human Services recommended in 2023, could potentially iron out some of the issues faced by CBD manufacturers, but it’s unclear when, or if, that will happen. Trump said he would make a final decision on rescheduling months ago, but a White House spokesperson told Marijuana Moment this week that the process remains “ongoing.”
The proposed hemp ban marks a cultural shift in the U.S. after more than a decade of wins for the cannabis industry. A Gallup poll found that, in 2025, Republicans’ support for legal marijuana fell to 40 percent from 53 percent in 2024, their lowest level of support since 2015. Chris Lindsey points to unregulated hemp products as the culprit. “I think people have had enough of the headlines,” he says. “We cannot be associated with a lawless drug that shows up in candy.” Despite some rumblings that re-regulating hemp is a right-wing prohibitionist move, Lindsey notes that blue states like California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington — all early movers in cannabis legalization — were among the first to crack down on hemp-derived THC. “It’s bipartisan,” he says. Now it’s a matter of the feds figuring it out.
