We told you yesterday about sweeping changes on the way for the U.S.

hemp industry.

In 2025, Congress approved new regulations for hemp that take effect later this year.

Some see it as a prohibition today.

Co-Founder of Cornbread Hampton, Louisville Jim Higdon testified to state lawmakers about the hemp industry.

He was asked by his father, Senator Jimmy Higdon, about synthetic versus natural hemp.

The bill that was passed in D.C., a lot of the talk when they passed that to ban, hemp products was based on a they painted with a pretty broad brush where the synthetic and the natural THC were all considered, to be, dangerous.

I know you've worked on that quite a bit in D.C., and hopefully we've people understand the difference between the two products.

Could you explain some of the work that you've been doing on that?

So synthetic cannabinoids will be banned in America on November 11th as scheduled in that in the band that was implemented last year, the only products they got an extension to December 12th were naturally occurring cannabinoids.

Synthetics are due to expire their federal legality on November 11th.

We took a trip to Cornbread Hemp facility to learn more about the hemp industry and what the future holds for that company, its products, and its customers if Congress doesn't act.

Here's more from Kentucky editions.

Clayton Dalton.

When Congress passed the 2018 farm bill, they removed hemp as a controlled substance and defined it as a cannabis plant with a low amount of THC.

That decision paved the way for many hemp products currently available on store shelves today.

Companies like cornbread Hemp sell lotions, gummies, and seltzers.

We have grown this business to 105 employees.

We shipped 50,000 orders a month out of here.

We've been the fastest growing business in Kentucky several years in a row.

But since Congress voted to change the definition of hemp requiring much lower levels of THC, Zippel says many of their products, including non intoxicating ones, are at risk of being banned on December 11th.

It is not just intoxicating hemp products, it is also CBD products that we sell here at Cornbread Hemp that have 1 to 2mg of THC per serving.

Those are non intoxicating CBD products.

They will all become federally illegal if this band goes through.

As it's written today.

Cornbread hemp does make intoxicating products too.

We launched the first ever certified organic THC gummies derived from him, and we also have a five milligram THC beverage.

We would consider those in pairing products that need to be in the hands of adults, not children that need to be educated.

21 Plus cornbread.

Hemp acknowledges that changes are needed within the hemp industry, and they believe Congressman Andy Bars Lawful Hemp Protection Act does that without squashing the industry.

We have a problem in America right now that we need to solve.

Hemp has colored outside the lines based on the definition of the 2018 farm bill, and that needs to be corralled and contained with good regulations.

But the proposed solution to this of an outright ban goes way too far.

We need regulations.

We need guardrails.

We need to in order to become a mature industry in America.

And Andy Bars Lawful Hip Protection Act does those things.

It provides guardrails like mandating 21 and over age gating, good manufacturing processes, mandatory third party lab testing, bans on foreign imported from places like China and sets a tax rate for our products so that the federal government can begin to receive revenue to help enforce those regulations in the marketplace to clean up these bad actors.

Without congressional action, Zippel says.

The future of cornbread hemp is grim.

If this band goes through as it stands today as it's written, unfortunately we won't be here anymore.

We would, we we would.

We're going to try to be.

But the fact is, 99% of our business comes from products that contain low levels of THC.

We will no longer be allowed to produce them or sell them.

We will not be in business if that's the case.

That's the reality.

And we we're here to fight until the very last minute when we can no longer fight.

For Kentucky.

Edition I'm Clayton Dalton.

Zipper says they buy all their hemp from growers in Kentucky.