The U.S. hemp industry is abuzz about a looming ban on hemp-derived compounds. By banning hemp-derived THC products, the U.S. government is also dismantling interstate access of full-spectrum hemp products used for healing, not for a high.
Beyond the ethical questions behind hemp-derived THC products and a lack of regulation, the 2018 Farm Bill provided access to full-spectrum CBD products for people living in a state without medical or adult-use cannabis.
The U.S. Senate scraped by 60-40 to approve a spending bill on Nov. 10 to end a record-setting government shutdown. The House of Representatives voted 222-209 to pass the bill, and President Donald Trump signed it on Nov. 12. A last-minute provision in the bill would repeal those provisions and re-criminalize hemp-derived THC products, despite nearly universal pushback from businesses, lawmakers, and lobbyists associated with hemp’s $28 billion industry.
On one hand, public health officials argue that the lack of regulation and oversight of these products poses risks to minors. A chorus of 39 state attorneys general signed a letter asking Congress to outlaw intoxicating hemp products at the federal level. But on the other hand, beyond the thousands of hemp businesses that would be rendered illegal overnight, patients are also at risk.
Hemp Product Ban’s Impact on Patients
The Realm of Caring (RoC) Foundation was co-founded in 2013 by Heather Jackson and Paige Figi, mother of Charlotte Figi, as a grassroots nonprofit with a goal to support families seeking information and access to cannabinoid therapies for their children. They focus on the natural healing powers of cannabis and hemp, especially for those living with epilepsy, spasms, and various other conditions.
“The majority of the population who is consuming a CBD product for health, wellness, and livelihood are consuming a full-spectrum CBD product,” says Realm of Caring Executive Director Sasha Kalcheff-Korn. “And if in one year that this bill goes into effect—as it stands currently—then a lot of people would lose access. It probably impacts hundreds of thousands, if not millions of patients who are relying on getting these non-intoxicating full-spectrum CBD products. A lot of the patients that we serve are in pediatrics.”
Full-spectrum CBD contains all of the natural compounds found in the hemp plant, including CBD, other cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids. And yes, this includes small amounts of THC. This synergistic effect is believed to be more powerful than harnessing only one compound such as CBD or THC, and it’s key to more effective products.
Kalcheff-Korn explained that a lot of patients are purchasing CBD products at a health food store or online, and may not necessarily live in a state with medical or adult-use cannabis. Before the 2018 Farm Bill, many families traveled to other states in search of quality products. In addition, many of these products feed into the state-regulated cannabis programs. Because of America’s checkerboard of regulations, the Farm Bill is the only hope for many patients.
“The regulations that exist, not just from state to state, but from city to city, because one city and a state could allow a specific access while another city doesn’t,” says Kalcheff-Korn. “So it would eliminate a lot of access for a lot of people. And these are not just people who are using this [exclusively]. These are individuals who have failed pharmaceutical treatments, who have failed conventional therapies, who have gone from hospice to school, who have had this next chance of life again for a lot of people. There are children who have gone from non-verbal to verbal. So it’s not just a vitamin supplement. It’s a lot more than that, and people will lose access to it.”
Under the 2018 Farm Bill, a legal loophole allowed hemp-derived THC products to flourish. It allows hemp plants with no more than 0.3% delta-9 THC on a dry-weight basis, under that definition. Cultivators discovered that they could grow high-THCa cannabis strains that would test below the 0.3% delta-9 THC threshold prior to harvest, as most of the THC was still in its acidic form. When THCa is heated and decarboxylated, it converts to intoxicating THC.
Under the new spending bill, it would prohibit hemp products from having more than 0.4 milligrams per container of total delta-9 THC. Hemp farmers across the country worry it could destroy the industry. The loophole itself provided ways to grow the plant within legal limits.
Alcohol Lobbies Against Hemp Products
The hemp industry faces pushback from several directions, including prohibitionists and state-legal medical and adult-use cannabis markets. Highly regulated cannabis businesses also view hemp as a competitor. Others view potent cannabis products as being superior. But the alcohol lobby was among the most diligent in fighting the hemp industry, citing child safety as the reason.
In a Nov. 4 letter, alcohol lobbies sent a letter urging Congress to regulate intoxicating hemp products, which was signed by American Distilled Spirits Alliance, Beer Institute, Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, Wine America, and Wine Institute. A coalition of over 50 alcohol distributors sent another letter to Congress on Nov. 5 to regulate and tax intoxicating hemp products like alcohol.
“When the alcohol industry is calling out the hemp industry as a whole, potentially some of that could be directed towards the intoxicating, untested, unregulated hemp products,” says Kalcheff-Korn. But in that process, they’re looping in all of these very safe, very quality, very non-intoxicating hemp products. And I would never say that alcohol is less harmful than any hemp.”
Hemp-infused drinks, for instance, have been deemed a threat to the alcohol industry as a whole as trends in alcohol consumption continue to change.
New Jersey-based attorney Joshua S. Bauchner is chair of the Cannabis, Hemp and Psychedelics Practice Group at Mandelbaum Barrett PC in New York. He focuses on cannabis, hemp and psychedelics-related services. He argued that hemp and cannabis are essentially the same thing.
“The new definition takes what is legal today, and potentially makes it illegal a year from now, undermining a robust, growing, billion-dollar industry employing hundreds of thousands,” Bauchner says. “Congress created a viable and robust hemp industry through the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. Unfortunately, this created a fictional distinction between hemp and marijuana, both of which come from the same cannabis plant. Rather than destroy the hemp industry—at the request of the liquor and marijuana industries—the better course would have been to create a safe and regulated market for all cannabis: intoxicating hemp, medicinal and adult-use marijuana, and everything in between. The CR just continues this false duality, creating incredible uncertainty in the hope that government will, miraculously, somehow finally get it right.”
Competing interests make the hemp-derived THC product industry a complicated issue. The provisions of the 2018 Farm Bill protect far more than hemp businesses that sell hemp-derived cannabinoid products.