A new version of the Farm Bill would make products with hemp-derived drugs illegal.
The draft was published Monday morning by U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) in a bid to pass a new farm bill before Congress adjourns in January.
The 1,400-page draft would ban non-industrial uses of hemp, closing what many have described as a loophole created by the 2018 Farm Bill.
In 2018, lawmakers legalized hemp and differentiated it from marijuana by the amount of a chemical called delta-9 THC. But that’s not the only chemical in cannabis that can get people high. So since then, companies have been selling products with natural and synthetic psychoactive chemicals derived from hemp.
The new bill would still allow low levels of THC, a provision the industrial hemp industry relies on to avoid accidentally violating the law while growing hemp for fiber and grain.
Some states like Missouri and California have already taken steps to try and close what many call the “hemp loophole.” While California’s ban has surmounted legal challenges, Missouri’s has since been narrowly tailored to only target “misbranded” psychoactive hemp products.
Dan Viets is the head of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML He’s in favor of regulating hemp-derived drugs and says banning them is a mistake.
“If there's reason to believe that these novel hemp-derived products might be harmful, let's do that research,” he said. “But let's not put people in jail in the meantime, let's not restrict competition in the meantime.”
Viets said it’s not clear what impact this would have on businesses and consumers. Currently, the federal government seldom enforces laws about marijuana possession and might reclassify the Schedule III drug.
Plus, the announcement that former U.S. House Representative Matt Gaetz could be taking over as U.S. Attorney General is encouraging to some marijuana enthusiasts, because Gaetz has pushed pro-cannabis legislation in the past.
The new bill’s language could have implications for non-psychoactive cannabis chemicals, like CBD.
“The term ‘industrial hemp’ means the plant Cannabis sativa L. if the harvested material … will not be used in the manufacturing or synthesis of natural or synthetic cannabinoid products,” the draft’s text says.
“We don't know at this point how or whether it would be enforced, but yes, CBD is a cannabinoid product, so that would seem to be banned under this particular version of the proposed law,” Viets said.
Some have been calling for this kind of legislation since 2018. Eric Leas is an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego. He studies public health and has written about the “Need to Clarify the Legality of Delta-8-THC and Other Hemp-Derived (THC) Compounds.”
“We don't know much of anything about them, like there's essentially no clinical research on these compounds.,” Leas said.
The 2018 Farm Bill was extended in 2023 and expired last September, causing some programs to shut down. The current Congress doesn’t have long to pass a new bill, as the new session begins in January.
