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The deal to end the country’s longest government shutdown has thrown the hemp industry for a loop, with a November 2026 deadline looming to ban many THC-infused products.
President Donald Trump signed the ban on THC-infused products into law in November, alongside a government funding patch, as part of the agriculture appropriations bill, which lowered the amount of THC allowed in hemp products such as gummies and vapes.
The provision lowered the amount of THC that is allowed in accessible hemp products, wiping out nearly all products available in the current market. The legislative text, passed through the chambers and signed into law by Trump, sets a limit of 0.4 milligrams of total hemp-derived THC per container, a drastic change from the 2018 language that had a legal threshold of hemp with less than 0.3% Delta-9 THC.
Luke Niforatos, the executive vice president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a nonprofit organization that has guided lawmakers on the topic of hemp regulation, told the Washington Examiner the 0.4 mg limit has the effect of “effectively banning the vast majority of intoxicating hemp products on the market.”
Lawmakers who championed the language, led by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and drug safety advocates have said the new definition is a public health matter, closing an unintended loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill that allowed the sale of intoxicating hemp products. They have argued that the new definition weeds out the industry’s bad actors and saves children from accidentally consuming accessible, intoxicating hemp-derived THC.
But the hemp industry is pushing back, raising concerns that 95% of the multibillion-dollar industry could be gutted once the language takes effect on Nov. 12, 2026. With less than a year to go, hemp farmers, businesses, and advocates are keeping their noses to the grindstone, choosing to fight the language and fight for the chance to save their market.
How the hemp industry got to this moment
When Congress passed the 2018 Farm Bill, lawmakers made way for a groundbreaking new cannabis industry that was independent from marijuana. The 2018 Farm Bill defined hemp as different from marijuana by legalizing products of the cannabis sativa plant that contain less than 0.3% delta-9 THC, which is the psychoactive compound of the plant.
At the time, both largely anti-hemp forces advocating a sharp restriction or repeal of the language, as well as largely pro-hemp forces seeking regulations on the language to ensure industry longevity, celebrated the 2018 definition as a victory.
Still, it was clear to critics and advocates that more needed to be done on the federal level regarding the sale and regulation of hemp products.
“Ever since COVID was over, beginning in early 2021, we’ve been coming to Congress on a quarterly basis to ask for regulations for our products – age gating, lab standards, packaging standards, basic rules for the road and guard rails for the industry,” said Jim Higdon, co-founder and COO of Cornbread Hemp, a premium hemp-derived CBD and THC company.
Higdon explained that when the 0.3% THC language was passed in 2018, it allowed for 3 milligrams of a specific type of THC, called delta-9, per serving in products such as CBD oils.
As the legislation did not put limitations on other variants of THC, the farm bill definition led to an unintended loophole that allowed businesses to create products that meet the legal THC percentage threshold but still create products that include enough THC to get people high.
The lack of regulation caused a dangerous spike in childhood hospitalizations and other public health risks because of intoxicating hemp’s accessibility in places such as gas stations, these groups said.
“Product innovation in the marketplace and the unregulated nature of the marketplace took that 3 milligrams per serving and exploded it into the free-for-all that has come back to haunt us,” Higdon said.
As industry advocates sought to lobby Congress to regulate hemp, drug safety advocates and anti-hemp industries, disturbed by the unregulated boom of hemp, sought to reverse the clock on the 2018 farm bill language and cut the industry’s intoxicating wing.
Through legislative pushes such as Rep. Mary Miller’s (R-IL) amendment to the proposed 2024 Farm Bill and an attempt to include the hemp-banning language in the fiscal 2026 agriculture appropriations bill in June, Congress has attempted to slash the 2018 Farm Bill language before.
Alcohol lobby groups, such as the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, have cheered on the hemp-banning language, applauding the June language, championed by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) in the House and McConnell in the Senate.
“We support closing the Farm Bill loophole that unintentionally allowed intoxicating-hemp products to be sold across the country, absent any taxation or regulation,” DISCUS CEO and President Chris Swonger said in a June statement. “Due to the lack of oversight created by the loophole, there are not consistent age restrictions or labeling requirements for intoxicating hemp products, creating a confusing and unsafe marketplace.”
After Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) led the movement to kill the language in July, this hemp battle between the two Kentucky senators resurfaced during the October shutdown, as the hemp-banning language made it into the final deal to reopen the government.
In his floor remarks on Nov. 10, McConnell said companies exploited the language he helped craft in 2018 and that children who mistake edible hemp for candy “end up being the unknowingly consumers of these poisonous products and being sent to the hospital at an alarming rate.”
“Industrial hemp and CBD will remain legal for industrial applications — such as seed, stock, fiber, grain oil — or used in drug trials,” McConnell said. “This language merely clarifies the original intent of the 2018 farm bill, rooting out the bad actors and protecting the growing hemp industry.”
What will 2026 look like for the hemp industry?
Jeff Boogaard, a Navy veteran, founded Cannabreeze Hemp Farm and Company after seeing the positive health and wellness effects CBD had on his daughter, who was battling cancer when the 2018 Farm Bill passed. His Loudoun County, Virginia, farm has provided Virginians, veterans, and hemp enthusiasts with 100% organic and non-GMO hemp products since 2020.
After the passage of the November agricultural minibus, Boogaard will not be growing hemp in the 2026 planting season.
“There is no 2026 planting season,” Boogaard said. “What am I going to do with the harvest when I finish? Nobody’s going to be growing in 2026. We’ve already removed it from our 2026 objectives. To grow it and then to throw it is just not good business sense.”
Boogaard shared that Cannabreeze has a 2,000-pound stockpile of hemp that would last the company several years, so the 2026 planting season does not personally affect its 2026 or 2027 product line. However, many U.S. farmers are not as fortunate. Higdon said he has spoken to farmers who could be put out of business if the 2026 planting season does not come to fruition.
“If farmers cannot grow and sell a hemp crop next year, there’s going to be farmers who lose farms over this,” Higdon said. “I have already heard from them. They have financed improvements to their farms based on the hemp industry, and if they miss payment to the bank, their farms are the collateral on those loans.”
Higdon, whose company uses Kentucky-grown hemp, explained that farmers need to have clarity on whether the November hemp-banning language is here to stay by February 2026, “or farmers get screwed.” Hemp farmers typically plant in mid-May, and farms need to file worker contracts for their H-2A visa temporary agricultural workers 90 days before they start, giving farmers a mid-February deadline for 2026 planting season clarity, Higdon explained.
Texas Hemp Business Council founder and president Cynthia Cabrera reiterated that farmers will be the first to feel the effects of the November language.
“The first people to get screwed are the farmers,” Cabrera said. “This is an unsubsidized crop that pays well, and Congress has absolutely wiped it off the board for farmers. There is no adapting to this language because there are no genetics that would allow you to make any product within the timeframe prescribed.”
Boogaard said his farm sells hemp-based products to customers ranging from people with high-level neuropathies to veterans dealing with PTSD. He said he has had many conversations with his customers about the impending ban and “they’re all hoping that common sense prevails” before the ban takes effect.
Boogaard told the Washington Examiner that “there is no adapting” to the 0.4-mg cap, calling it “unrealistic” and “unattainable.” He said his farm has two real options.
“One, we would fight for commonsense regulations, and No. 2, which could be the blessing in disguise, is that Virginia is set to legalize retail sale of cannabis in 2026,” Boogaard said, referencing plans in the Virginia legislature for regulated, retail marijuana. The second option, however, would require significant and possibly unwanted changes to seed planting.
What drug-safety advocates are saying
Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a drug safety group that was integral in crafting the 0.4-milligram cap, has said it will continue to push for the language to take effect in November 2026. SAM CEO and President Kevin Sabet slammed the hemp industry outcry over the new language.
“We’ve seen exactly what we expected: disingenuous outcry from an industry that sickens kids and countless Americans over an existential threat to their addiction-for-profit business model—an outcry that often gets amplified by a confused (or even compromised) media,” Sabet said.
He told the Washington Examiner that SAM’s legislative advocacy strategy over the next year, to ensure the language takes effect, is simply to “tell the truth.”
“The science and data all line up with the anti-hemp position here,” Sabet said. “Data from Ohio show a huge spike in kids going to ERs for weed, massively driven by edibles. In the home state of Mr. Hemp himself, Rand Paul, the data tell a similar story. The FDA has been clear that delta-8 THC, the high-inducing compound in these dangerous products, is linked to worrying physical and mental health harms.”
McConnell has also previously pointed to a University of Kentucky study that showed spiking cannabis-related emergency room visits among children.
“SAM and our allies have publicized these deeply inconvenient facts and provided guidance on them to the large and bipartisan group of lawmakers who prefer to make policy based on science and reason rather than tender concerns over an addiction industry’s bottom lines,” Sabet said. “And that is what we will continue to do, and why we expect to prevail.”
Legislative approaches to combating hemp-banning language
The hemp industry has made it clear that it is not ready to throw in the towel and sit back as the ban is set to take place in November 2026.
“It is going to be a nonstop effort, because everything is on the line,” Cabrera said. “We will leave everything on the field and give it our best shot, and there’s always hope. As long as there’s hope, this industry is going to fight.”
Both Cabrera and Higdon, each an advocate in a state with a significant hemp-farming population, Texas and Kentucky, respectively, said their first legislative move is to lobby for an extension on the November 2026 deadline, giving the industry a bit more room to breathe.
Farmers are “very concerned, because, again, this kills everything they’ve been currently planting,” Cabrera said. “So there has to be an extension, if only to give the farmers an opportunity to pivot, if that’s what it comes to. Either we get language fixed or get an extension, but there’s no working with that language.”
Higdon explained that as different factions of the hemp industry work out their disagreements on how the actual definition language should be amended, he says each sector of the industry, from hemp-derived THC drinks to wellness products, agrees on the extension concept.
“The easiest thing, legislatively, to accomplish, even though it’s going to be difficult, is everyone getting together and pushing for an extension on this 365-day clock that we’ve been given. We understand that the members of the House will be proposing an extension for 18 months, we’re hopeful for,” Higdon said, forecasting a bill proposal on the horizon.
Higdon did not elaborate on which members of Congress were in favor of the 18-month extension, saying the details are still being fleshed out.
So far, legislators such as Paul, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY), and James Comer (R-KY) have been vocal in their disagreement with the agriculture minibus language.
Paul unsuccessfully pushed for an amendment in November to strike the language and has publicly said he would “introduce a bill to let state hemp laws override the new federal ban.” Cabrera told the Washington Examiner she was supportive of the idea of hemp falling to the states, an idea which Cruz has also publicly backed.
As far as bills that have already been filed, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) filed a bill in late November to fully strike the new hemp definition. In the upper chamber, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced a bill in December to keep hemp legal, but it sets a federal age limit of 21, among other controls and requirements, and bans excessive THC levels.
WHAT TO EXPECT IF TRUMP RECLASSIFIES MARIJUANA
Trump on hemp
On Dec. 18, President Donald Trump signed an executive order fast-tracking the reclassification of marijuana from a Schedule I to Schedule III substance. During the signing event, Trump discussed hemp and said his administration would be asking the legislative branch to “reconsider its classification of hemp-derived CBD.”
“We’re also asking Congress to reconsider its classification of hemp-derived CBD to ensure seniors can access CBD products they have found beneficial for pain and other reasons,” Trump said. “Some people are literally dying, they’re dying with tremendous pain, and this can, in many cases, literally stop it. And they have their sense about them, as opposed to painkillers, which don’t allow that.”