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A new federal law regulating hemp products that act similarly to pot goes into effect next year.
Included in the funding bill signed into law by the president this week is a law banning the sale of hemp products with trace levels of THC.
The new law replaces the 2018 Farm Bill’s definition of hemp which allowed products with less than 0.3% THC by weight instead of total amount.
“We have lost the battle this time,” said Jonathan Miller, the U.S. Hemp Roundtable’s general counsel. “In effect, this is a total, all out, complete ban on hemp products in the United States.”
The deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Paul Armentano, says preventing the sale of hemp would decimate a billion-dollar market and gut thousands of jobs.
Last year Governor Ron DeSantis showed support for these businesses when he vetoed a similar law banning low-THC hemp on the state level.
Armentano says the state could choose to allow hemp sales to continue when the law takes effect next year effectively treating hemp like medical marijuana and ignore the new federal law.
“We have a year to figure this out but, in the meantime, you could see losses across the industry if we can’t,” Miller said.