US lawmakers are set to debate the incoming Farm Bill today in a session that could decide the future of the country’s hemp and CBD industries.
At the heart of an emerging battle between some of the country’s largest cannabis companies and hemp trade groups is an amendment that would seek to make hemp products with any amount of THC federally prohibited.
This amendment, brought by Republican Mary Miller, is designed to regulate the flourishing intoxicating hemp industry.
As Business of Cannabis has previously reported, compounds like HHC and Delta-8 THC have proliferated across the US in recent months, and while a number of individual states have moved to regulate them, they remain legal and sparsely regulated at a federal level.
However, the amendment to the Farm Bill would also have a major impact on the country’s hemp and CBD industry, meaning 90-95% of hemp products on the market, including FDA approved animal feed, would be banned.
U.S. Hemp Roundtable General Counsel Jonathan Miller said: “The U.S. Hemp Roundtable, and the dozens of other non-profit organizations in the hemp space, strongly oppose the Mary Miller Amendment and urge its defeat in tomorrow’s Farm Bill markup before the House Agriculture Committee.
“By federally banning all ingestible hemp products with any quantifiable level of THC, the Mary Miller Amendment would result in federal prohibition of 90-95% of all hemp products on the market, even a large majority of popular, non-intoxicating CBD products that naturally contain trace, non-intoxicating amounts of THC in them.
“The redefinition of hemp to include a calculation of THC-A would wreak havoc in the fiber and grain markets. While we have for years strongly supported efforts to regulate hemp and CBD – even testifying to that effect before Congress – the Mary Miller Amendment throws the baby out with the bathwater, devastating a vibrant industry, killing tens of thousands of agriculture and retail jobs, and denying access to popular products that Americans count on for their health and wellness.”
Some cannabis companies have voiced support for the bill, as the emergence of hemp-derived cannabinoids are slowly eating into their market share due to their cheaper cost and lack of regulation.
Ahead of the House Agriculture Committee debate, lawmakers are still deliberating on whether to introduce the amendment and to what extent the amendment should go. Support from fellow Republicans, some of whom have already opposed it, could be a decisive factor.
