Tucked into the Senate bill to reopen the government is a federal ban on Hemp products.

 

Wisconsin State Senator Dora Drake meeting with a hemp business owner. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Tucked into the Senate bill to reopen the government is a federal ban on hemp products. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The bill will close a "loophole" in the 2018 Farm Bill which legalized hemp derived THC products, like THCA, delta-8, HHC, THCV and CBD oils. Under the new bill, products that have more than 0.4 milligrams of THC would be banned. The ban would decimate an entire industry that has popped up since the 2018 farm bill that employs more than 300,000 people nationally and is worth $28 billion. The bill was challenged by Senator Rand Paul, but passed easily in the Senate and will likely pass the house as it was included with the must pass bill to reopen the shutdown.   

My Comment:

Man, the GOP senate is less than useless. I don't know of anyone who thought banning these THC products was a major issue that needed to be dealt with right now. Indeed, from what I understand, most Americans don't want a ban on these products. Regulation might be a problem, but this isn't regulation, it's just an outright ban. 

It's also a terrible look to get rid of up to 325,000 jobs and a major driver of sales at businesses across the country. Getting rid of jobs right now is a bad move. The economy isn't bad on wall street, but main street has never recovered from the Biden years and the last thing they need is more people out of work. Legal TCH isn't a huge industry, but we can hardly afford to get rid of anything when it comes to these kinds of low-skill jobs. 

It's also another example of how out of touch our ancient senators are. From what I understand, this was a Mitch McConnell thing. McConnel is 83 and he had help from Lindsey Graham (70) and Chuck Grassley (an astounding 92). President Trump, which supports this, is pretty ancient himself. And it makes sense that folks of those ages would be opposed to these products, support for pot has long been divided by age. 

But at some point these ancient folks need to make way for younger Republicans to take over. Anyone under the age of 50 would have been able to tell the Republican Party that these products are popular and widely used and that there was very little appetite for banning them for folks younger than Baby Boomers. This is hardly the only example of the GOP being absolutely out of touch with their younger voters, but it's the most recent and probably one of the more extreme versions. 

Lobbying is probably another factor outside of the GOP leadership being out of touch with their voters. A lot of this is due to the alcohol industry which has faced hard times lately. Folks are taking these THC products instead of getting drunk, which has eaten into their profits. 

Surprisingly enough another major lobbying group is the companies that run legal marijuana businesses in the states where it is legal. These industries are more regulated than the largely unregulated THC industry and they do not appreciate the competition. 

As for my state, this is going to be a problem here. Pot is still illegal in Wisconsin so these products are a way for folks to get high without having to buy from a sketchy drug dealer or driving all the way to Michigan. It's not something I partake in myself, but a lot of folks here do, and there would be a lot of head-shops that would either lose a ton of businesses or could even get shut down because of this, not to mention the places that manufacture these hemp products. This is not something I support at all. 

Will this ban be permanent? I don't think there is a real chance that it fails in the House, the government has to reopen at this point, and though this ban will likely be very unpopular it's not so unpopular that folks are willing to take the hit to keep the government closed. But I fully expect new lawsuits over this and we might see some different legislation next year. 

What concerns me is that the Republicans have just given the Democrats another midterm issue. Much like how the Democrats motivated their voters by putting them out of work during the government shutdown and then trying to blame it on Republicans, Republicans themselves are giving a bunch of voters, who otherwise might have sat out in 2026, an obvious reason to vote. Like I said, this is a total own-goal...