While America cheered that Congress finally funded the government, the funding bill included a less celebrated but far more significant victory – a ban on dangerous intoxicating hemp products.
For years, seemingly harmless hemp products have been filling the shelves of gas stations, vape shops, and liquor stores. THC seltzer waters and soda, Hemp-laced gummies and brownies, hemp-based tinctures and oils are commonplace. But what most people think are innocuous ways to get a brief high or relieve stress are actually extremely dangerous, unregulated products.
In 2018, the Farm Bill removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act, making industrial hemp production legal without any regulations. Some forms of hemp are generally safe, such as the commonly used cannabidiol (or CBD), or hemp used for textiles, building materials, and paper. More farmers are investing in hemp because of its wide array of uses, especially in states like Kentucky, which have seen dropping sales of tobacco. But this broad legalization led to not only more hemp-based clothing products, but also the mass production of other, highly intoxicating forms, such as Delta-8 THC.
Because of the lack of regulation, these products have been wreaking havoc on American society in recent years. The FDA has not evaluated or approved the Delta-8 for any kind of safe use, which means that, unlike the alcohol or tobacco industries, there are no guaranteed standards or potency, purity, or labeling for any Delta-8 products. They are often advertised as “weed light” for producing less of a high than typical marijuana and are often packaged in appealing ways, such as brownies, colorful gummies, and flavored vapes. They lack consistent age restrictions or labeling restrictions. Not only do these factors imply that these products are safe, but children can easily confuse a hemp product with a regular box of candy or soda.
According to the FDA, Delta-8 use has been linked to hallucinations, vomiting, tremor, anxiety, dizziness, confusion, and loss of consciousness. Due in part to the easy accessibility of these hemp products, Poison Centers have managed 10,000 cases of Delta-8 exposures in the past 5 years. And by packaging Delta-8 in the form of yummy-looking edibles, they can easily end up in the hands of kids, who are even more susceptible to the drug’s effects. In 2022, a 4-year-old child in Virginia died after eating Delta-8 edibles.
In this latest funding bill, Congress added a provision to limit the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, that a hemp product can contain. While hemp comes from the same cannabis species as marijuana, it is legally defined by its lower levels of THC. But the high amounts of THC in many hemp products make them just as psychoactive as marijuana. The ban is an attempt to walk the line between keeping innocuous products like pants and building pallets made of hemp on the market but removing products such as Delta-8.
The federal level ban comes after numerous efforts at the state level to regulate these products. In October, Ohio governor Mike DeWine declared a state emergency, imposing a 90-day ban on hemp products while state lawmakers debated legislation. At the same time, California passed legislation strengthening its already-existing ban. Both Florida and Texas attempted to pass laws regulating THC products, but both bills ultimately failed to pass. Lawmakers cited constitutional concerns since the products were, at the time, still legal under federal law.
The ban has its critics, of course. The U.S. Hemp Roundtable claims that it will wipe out 95% of the $28.4 billion industry. It’s hard to be sympathetic, though – if the vast majority of the industry is made of dangerous products with misleading labels that easily end up into the hands of kids, that’s not an industry that should be sustained.
Due to the growing amount of hemp farms in his state, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has opposed this language ever since it was included in the Agriculture appropriations bill earlier this year. Since he was unable to get it removed when the bill went through committee, he held up the government funding bill in order to get a full Senate vote on the language. In exchange for his vote for the funding bill, he insisted that Majority Leader John Thune have the Senate vote on an amendment that would have stripped the language from the bill. Thanks to Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee’s quick advocacy work and that of other allied organizations, that vote failed 76-24.
While CWALAC champions the free market, guardrails are necessary to protect the well-being of American families, especially kids. And this small change in the federal code banning intoxicating hemp-based products will go a long way in doing just that.
