The U.S. Congress is caught up in a political haze over what to do with hemp.
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Back in 2018, when lawmakers were discussing hemp laws, they made it clear: it’s for “rope, not dope.” But now? The whole debate around hemp is pretty much all about getting high.
When Congress passed the 2018 Farm Bill, they didn’t intend to legalize hemp products that could be turned into something that makes people feel intoxicated. But, surprise—that’s exactly what happened. This green wave of new products has flooded the market, many of which are designed to get people high, and some of these products are not just unregulated but also potentially harmful and synthetically produced.
Congress Is Waking Up to the Issue
The argument over whether these intoxicating hemp products should continue to fly under the radar of the Farm Bill has become as heated as other marijuana-related debates in D.C. It’s time for everyone—Congress and the industry—to recognize where things stand and find some common ground.
Not a Push to Legalize Weed
To be clear, Congress is not interested in using the Farm Bill as a backdoor to legalize marijuana. The Farm Bill, officially known as the Agriculture Improvement Act, is about farming—not about consumer products like finished cannabis edibles or oils. Even lawmakers who support broader cannabis legalization don’t see the Farm Bill as the way to do it.
But here’s where things get sticky: the industry is now arguing that the language around "derivatives" in the Farm Bill gives them a free pass to sell unregulated hemp intoxicants. If that’s true, it would mean synthetic THC products have more legal protection than natural THC—which makes no sense. Yet, that’s the exact argument some in the industry are pushing for, creating a lot of confusion and uncertainty about the regulations around both marijuana and hemp.
To make things even more complicated, the committees working on the Farm Bill don’t have the authority to create a regulatory framework for these products. The agriculture committees can’t just tell the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate THC in consumer products, even though that’s exactly what the industry wants.
CBD Confusion
Look at what’s happened with CBD: six years after the 2018 Farm Bill, Congress still hasn’t figured out how to regulate CBD properly. In fact, CBD in food is still considered illegal. So, if Congress can’t even regulate something they meant to legalize, how are they going to deal with the intoxicating hemp products they didn’t intend to legalize?
Closing the Hemp Loophole: Would It Help?
Now, the big question: would closing this so-called “hemp loophole” actually change anything? The reality is, it’s always been illegal under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act to add THC to food, ship it across state lines, or sell it, whether that THC comes from hemp or marijuana. The idea that “Farm Bill-compliant” hemp intoxicants are federally legal has never really been true.
To truly legalize these products, more than just removing them from the Controlled Substances Act is needed. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has consistently said that products converted from CBD into THC are illegal and classified as Schedule 1 drugs.
And when the Department of Justice recommended rescheduling marijuana, they specified that synthetic THC—the stuff being sold under the Farm Bill—would still remain a Schedule 1 substance.
Public Perception and State Regulations
As public perception shifts on these products, states need to step up and regulate hemp intoxicants just like they do marijuana. The Mary Miller Amendment in the House’s draft of the Farm Bill has sparked some of the most important conversations yet about the need for a real regulatory system. The key takeaway: THC is THC, no matter where it comes from, and it needs to be treated that way.
A United Regulatory System for Hemp and Marijuana
As this whole issue continues to evolve, it’s becoming clear that anyone producing or selling THC—whether it’s from hemp or marijuana—needs to be under one, unified regulatory system. For some in the hemp industry, that could mean tougher testing and labeling standards, new taxes, production rules, and even supporting criminal justice reform and social equity programs.
The broader marijuana movement is about much more than just making money—it’s about righting the wrongs of cannabis prohibition. The argument that synthetic hemp intoxicants should have some special legal status, free from proper state regulations, isn’t sustainable and doesn’t make sense for the future of the industry.
Now’s the time to clear up the confusion with Congress, and stop misleading consumers. Treating marijuana and hemp as one federally regulated industry is the right move, and it’s what should have been done all along.
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