Kentucky’s two U.S. senators sparred this week over the future of the country’s hemp industry — one arguing that a provision attached to the package that will reopen the government will close a problematic loophole and the other contending the language will regulate the industry “to death.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell ultimately prevailed and was able to keep the section in the Agriculture appropriations bill cracking down on hemp that Sen. Rand Paul tried to remove during floor debate. Both are Republicans.
The appropriations bill is riding along with a stopgap spending bill that will end the government shutdown and is expected to be voted on by the House as soon as Wednesday. The hemp measure has raised alarm in farm states benefiting from a robust hemp growing industry.
Cannabis cultivated as hemp has 0.3% or less of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, while plants cultivated as marijuana have higher concentrations of that substance, which is what gives users the “high or stoned” feeling.
A summary of the bill put together by Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins’ staff says the new language would prevent “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.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a warning page on its website cautioning “that delta-8 THC products have not been evaluated or approved by the FDA for safe use in any context.”
Farm Bill origins
McConnell explained he is targeting hemp because its uses have expanded beyond what was intended.
“I led the effort to legalize industrial hemp through the 2014 pilot program and the 2018 Farm Bill,” McConnell said. “Unfortunately, companies have exploited a loophole in the 2018 legislation by taking legal amounts of THC from hemp and turning it into intoxicating substances, and then marketing it to children in candy-like packaging and selling it in easily accessible places, like gas stations and convenience stores all across our country.”
McConnell said the new provision, which won’t take effect until a year after the bill becomes law, would “keep these dangerous products out of the hands of children while preserving the hemp industry for farmers.”
Paul and Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley urged their colleagues to remove that McConnell provision from the larger spending package, but were unsuccessful.
“This is the most thoughtless, ignorant proposal to an industry that I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Paul said.
The new language would change the definition of what makes a hemp plant legal, a move Paul said would mean “every plant in the country will have to be destroyed.”
“This bill’s per-serving THC content limit would make illegal any hemp product that contains more than point four milligrams,” Paul said. “That would be nearly 100% of the existing market. That amounts to an effective ban, because the limit is so low that the products intended to manage pain or anxiety will lose their effect.”
State laws said to be nullified
The legislation, Paul added, will negatively impact the nearly two dozen states that have set higher limits on hemp production.
“Currently, Maine limits THC to three milligrams per serving. That will be overruled. My home state limits THC to five milligrams in beverages; that will be overruled. Minnesota, Utah, Louisiana also have five milligrams per serving. Alabama and Georgia have 10 milligrams. Tennessee has 15 milligrams,” Paul said. “The bill before us nullifies all these state laws.”
Merkley said the new provision in the larger spending package would eliminate the hemp industry, which Congress took steps to establish more than a decade ago.
“I support my other colleague from Kentucky who doesn’t want intoxicated products produced from hemp,” Merkley said. “But the definition that is in this bill does far more than that, and it has to be fixed. So for now, it needs to be stripped out.”
The Senate voted 76-24 to table, or set aside, Paul’s amendment after McConnell moved to block it from being taken up directly.
The Agriculture funding bill is one of three full-year government spending bills included in the stopgap spending package that will end the government shutdown once the House approves the measure later this week and President Donald Trump signs the bill.
Kentuckians dismayed
Two Kentucky business owners who sell hemp-derived products voiced dismay at what the provision could mean for the state’s hemp industry.
Dee Dee Taylor, president of the Kentucky Hemp Association, said the McConnell provision would destroy her business, 502 Hemp, a retailer of hemp-derived CBD and THC products in Louisville.
“For them to cut this industry down while the whole country is already down is absolutely insane, and I hope that every legislator loses their job in the next cycle,” Taylor said.
Taylor said hemp-derived products should be regulated similar to alcohol and tobacco products with purchases limited to people 21 or older. “These products have never killed anyone.”
Taylor spoke out earlier this year against a Kentucky bill that would have temporarily banned the sale of intoxicating hemp-derived beverages in the state. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, was later revised to remove the ban and instead regulate such beverages similar to alcohol, along with putting a limit on the amount of THC in each beverage.
Iowa and Maryland have also regulated and restricted THC-infused drinks, while lawmakers in a number of other states have introduced legislation to regulate such beverages.
“Let the adults make the decisions if they want to use it or not. We already have those regulations in Kentucky. Why not make them countrywide?” Taylor said.
Jim Higdon, the owner of Cornbread Hemp, which sells seltzer beverages infused with hemp-derived THC, blamed the influence of the alcohol industry for the recent scrutiny on such beverages.He said hemp-derived beverages are popular, while alcoholic beverage sales are declining.
“Alcohol manufacturers want us dead,” Higdon said.
With the provision not going into effect until a year after the law is passed, Higdon said hemp farmers would need to get clarity as well over whether planting a hemp crop is legal.
The Kentucky Department of Agriculture reports that this year Kentucky had 160 licensed hemp growers and 40 processors/handlers in 60 of the state’s 120 counties, harvesting almost 4,700 acres. Flowers and cannabinoids account for 97.5% of Kentucky hemp production and fiber only 2%. In 2019, Kentucky had 978 hemp growers, according to the Department of Agriculture, the highest number since the crop was re-legalized.
Trade group warns of hundreds of thousands of jobs affected
Hemp Industry & Farmers of America Executive Director Brian Swensen wrote in a statement released last week that McConnell’s provision would have a devastating impact on the industry and its workers.
“Congress legalized hemp, Americans built an industry, and now Washington wants to pull the rug out from under hardworking farmers and small business owners. The industry wants a solid regulatory package that protects kids, but instead, Congress wants to place industry-killing caps on cannabinoids. Congress is not listening to the industry they created — they’re dismantling an industry with over 325,000 jobs and driving consumers to an unregulated, unsafe, and untaxed black market.”
Reporter Liam Niemeyer contributed to this story.