How the bill that ended the shutdown could threaten the U.S. hemp industry’s future

John Yang:

The legislation Congress passed this past week to reopen the government included a provision banning intoxicating products made out of hemp plant. Hemp is a type of cannabis, just like marijuana, but has a lower level of the psychoactive element THC.

Because of that, hemp hasn't been as strictly regulated as marijuana. Critics say that allows the manufacture of synthetic THC products that can be more intoxicating than marijuana. But others warn that the new limits could kill a growing industry and hurt us hemp farmers. Ali Rogin spoke with Manisha Krishnan, senior culture editor at Wired.

Ali Rogin:

Thank you so much for joining us. So just to set the record, on some terms we're going to be using, there's hemp and then there's what people call marijuana or weed. They're both derivations of the same cannabis sativa plant, but they are regulated differently. Why is that?

Manisha Krishnan, Senior Culture Editor, WIRED:

So cannabis or weed essentially is federally illegal, and it contains Delta 9, which is the psychoactive ingredient that gets people high. Hemp, on the other hand, comes from the same plant, but it contains very low levels of Delta 9, and it was legalized under the 2018 farm bill.

However, hemp does contain other psychoactive ingredients, including Delta 8, including THCA. And so what happened when the farm bill was passed was it created this market where for Delta 8 products, for psychoactive products that were derived from hemp.

Ali Rogin:

And so how does that difference in regulation lead to what critics have called a dangerous loophole?

Manisha Krishnan:

So essentially what happened with the loophole was it created this market for all of these hemp derived psychoactive products. And these products are not regulated by the FDA. So something like Delta 8 gummies or drinks, they're not regulated. And in that sense, we don't necessarily know what's being put into them. There could be extra chemicals and things of that nature that are put into them.

And I think that's why some people are arguing that we should have better regulation. We don't necessarily know what's being in them. They're not all tested with rigor. And some of the adverse reports that have come about have been in relation to like, dizziness, nausea. There haven't really been a lot of deaths, as far as I know, that have been linked to Delta 8 products.

Ali Rogin:

Tell us about the industry, though, that has really blossomed since this legalization was included in this 2018 farm bill. It seems like the hemp industry really has taken off in this country.

Manisha Krishnan:

Yeah. So, I mean, in 2023, there were about $2.7 billion in sales from these hemp derived psychoactive products. And then there's also the CBD market. CBD is not psychoactive, but it is quite popular. People use it for things like insomnia and anxiety.

And it's also given sort of a new crop to farmers. So Kentucky, for example, is a big hemp producer. And so I think there's a lot of sort of different industries that have grown because of the farm bill. And these products tend to thrive the most in states that do not have legal cannabis.

Ali Rogin:

So now that this ban is going into place, do you think we're going to see a similar dynamic happen with the hemp industry that we've seen with cannabis, where states have been softening their laws? So you really have a different patchwork of regulations around these products.

Manisha Krishnan:

There are already a lot of states that have their own regulations around hemp, just like there are a lot of states that have legal cannabis. But I think what's interesting is that the majority of Americans do support legal cannabis.

And I feel like right now the hemp industry is sort of looking at this not just as a ban, but potentially as an opportunity to table legislation that would properly regulate these psychoactive hemp products at a federal level.

Ali Rogin:

Some opponents of this legislation were saying, you know, the better way to deal with this is just to weed out the bad actors to put in more enforcement, not necessarily ban it.

Manisha Krishnan:

I think that there's an argument to be made that, you know, why can't the FDA simply go in and regulate the hemp industry and the hemp products that already exist? I think maybe it's a little bit harder because it was tucked into this farm bill and it became this loophole that a lot of people didn't anticipate. It sort of created this cottage industry that people didn't anticipate.

So I think now potentially with, you know, enough lobbying, there's an opportunity to sort of go back and fix that.

Ali Rogin:

And what's going to happen to the THC products derived from hemp that are currently on shelves available in breweries around the country, that kind of thing?

Manisha Krishnan:

I think it'll sort of depend, like it will depend on what the state laws are. If a state already has regulations around hemp, then in that state, there may still continue to be sales. However, it will make it a lot harder to do business with other states, to sort of cross state lines. Banking is another potential huge issue when something becomes federally illegal like this.

Ali Rogin:

Manisha Krishnan with Wired. Thank you so much.

Manisha Krishnan:

Thank you.