A sweeping rewrite of federal hemp policy, tucked into a government funding bill, is threatening to dismantle a multibillion-dollar industry. The effort has the potential to affect thousands of American farmers and retailers just as the federal government gears up to reopen.

In a sharp turn for U.S. agricultural policy, the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (also known as the 2018 farm bill), which legalized commercial cultivation of hemp, may be effectively undone by a provision in the current spending package that would ban most intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoid products.

Late Monday, the Senate approved a funding measure aimed at reopening the government that includes language redefining hemp and barring the sale of products containing certain THC compounds unless they meet strict new thresholds.

The Senate rejected an amendment proposed by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that would have stripped the new hemp-THC language, in a 76-24 vote to postpone acting on it.

Paul warned from the floor that “the bill, as it now stands, overrides the regulatory frameworks of several states, cancels the collective decisions of hemp consumers and destroys the livelihoods of hemp farmers,” citing the fragile economic state of U.S. agriculture.

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Tagged: Politics BACK TO HOMEPAGE