GOP Rep’s Hemp Bill Could Imperil Legal Weed Push

May 24, 2024 Politics, Republicans

The Hill reports:

A ban on intoxicating hemp products has made it into the House version of the farm bill. If the amendment makes it through a polarized House and divided Congress, it would end America’s brief experiment with nationally legal cannabis.

The language added to the House version of the farm bill by Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) in effect repeals a sweeping legal change passed by an all-Republican coalition in 2018’s farm bill.

Miller’s amendment, which was co-sponsored by Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.), who is from a state with legal marijuana, restricts the definition of legal hemp to “naturally, occurring, naturally derived and non-intoxicating cannabinoids.”

The Cannabis Business Times reports:



A proposed amendment also would hinder seed companies, breeders and cannabis flower producers from selling seeds and cannabis flower across state lines in the U.S. under what is considered a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill.

Miller’s proposed definition of hemp would include only components of the Cannabis sativa L. plant and all derivatives and seeds that include less than 0.3% total THC (including THCA) on a dry-weight basis.

This would effectively make illegal products containing intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids (e.g., delta-8 THC), shuttering what has become a multibillion-dollar market in the U.S.

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