Abram Phillips farms hemp with his father in north-central Kentucky. He’s one of many in the burgeoning industry already feeling the effects of the impending ban on intoxicating hemp products. Now, less than three months out from going into effect, Phillips says he and his father have got more than 500 acres of last year’s crop sitting on the shelf.
“Soon as they passed that bill, everything just shut down. I mean, nothing was worth selling,” Phillips said. “Honestly, it's been pretty rough.”
With the ban hanging over the industry’s head, Phillips said the price of hemp materials has dropped and he wouldn’t break even at the current price. All in all, Phillips has almost 2 million pounds of unsold hemp. Still, he and his father decided to plant this year’s crop anyway. All of his optimism rests on congressmen in Capitol Hill coming to a compromise.
Included in the continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded, the U.S. Senate added a provision that would extend the ban from November until December 11. That one extra month, Phillips said, means something may be shifting.
“I have a lot more hope,” Phillips said.
National outlets are reporting the one month extension complicated the passage of the continuing resolution, as the White House pushed behind the scenes to get it done. The argument came to the Senate floor, when the majority of senators voted to table an amendment that would keep the ban’s original November deadline.
If the House decides to approve the Senate’s changes to the continuing resolution, hemp products containing cannabinoids like delta-8 THC can stay on the shelves a little bit longer — until at least Dec. 11, excluding synthetic products.
Industry leaders say they hope that one extra month will give them more time to get a deferral regulatory compromise in place and avoid the ban altogether, although opponents say it’s an attempt to keep underregulated intoxicating products in stores.
Kentucky congressmen have been intimately enmeshed in this battle. GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is credited with first opening the hemp loophole, pushed hard to close it back up in last year’s appropriations’ bill. His biggest opponent? Kentucky’s junior GOP Sen. Rand Paul, who told Kentucky Public Radio Tuesday that states like Kentucky have already set up their own regulatory structure for intoxicating products made from hemp, and Congress should get out of the way.
“What they have in place, come November, is going to wipe out the hemp industry nationwide. The one month reprieve is good, but we still need a solution,” Paul said.
He favors allowing states that have regulated hemp, like Kentucky, to keep their current structure, superseding federal rules. Paul said he doesn’t want a black market of THC products when many states have found a balance that works for them.
“I don't think it's somehow more moral to take a Percocet than it is to take a hemp gummy to sleep at night. And a lot of ordinary people who are not drug abusers are taking something to sleep at night,” Paul said. “Adults ought to make these decisions, not the government.”
McConnell remains on the sidelines, recovering from home after a lengthy hospitalization and stay in a rehabilitation center, according to emailed statements from the 84-year-old senator. But in a statement to KPR, McConnell’s spokesperson Stephanie Penn said he is “firmly opposed” to delaying the hemp ban.
“This extension would continue to expose our nation’s children to unregulated, intoxicating, hemp-derived THC products,” Penn said in a statement. “Protecting the most vulnerable has been central to Senator McConnell’s work in the Senate, and he stands resolute behind the language he helped secure last year which would keep dangerous, harmful products out of the hands of children while preserving industrial hemp and non-intoxicating CBD.”
In Kentucky, businesses that sell intoxicating cannabis products derived from hemp have to register and are only allowed to sell to those 21 and up. There’s also a limit on how much THC can be sold in intoxicating hemp beverages.
Back on the federal level, the spending bill is now back in the House for the chamber to review the Senate’s changes, including the extension. That includes Kentucky GOP Rep. James Comer, who has vociferously dissented against the impending ban, and Republican Rep. Andy Barr, who proposed his own regulatory framework last month.
Louisville-based Cornbread Hemp produces THC gummies and drinks and essentially all of its products would be made illegal under the federal ban. About 97% of all hemp products made in Kentucky would become illegal, according to the company.
“Cornbread Hemp isn’t going anywhere. We’ll keep making our products in Louisville and keep pushing Congress to get this right,” said Jim Higdon, Cornbread Hemp co-founder and chief communications officer. “The bill still has to clear the House in September, and we have to make this same case again in December before the extension runs out. We are ready to get to work to get this done.”
While supporters of the ban, like McConnell, argue it does not affect CBD products, hemp industry leaders say it will still impact full-spectrum CBD products, which generally contain low-doses of THC.
Katie Moyer, the owner of Christian County-based processor Kentucky Hemp Works, said her business uses every part of the plant, but it’s undeniable that products containing at least some level of THC are the most popular.
“We may be able to continue to make some of the products, but it's not likely that we're going to be able to get raw materials for things like roots, stalk, and even seed if the cannabinoid industry isn't carrying the industry,” said Moyer, who is also the secretary of the Kentucky Hemp Association.
Her full-spectrum CBD products, which she says many people use to help them sleep or manage various aches and pains, usually contain some small amount of THC.
“You don't want to have just a pure CBD only. You want to have a mixture of cannabinoids, and THC is the only one that the government uses to determine… whether that's marijuana or hemp,” Moyer said. “It was poorly written. Unless the goal was really to ban it all, in which case it was very well written.”
Moyer said that she’s hopefully the extension will give lawmakers time to get in place regulations that the industry can live with.
“I do think that there's a good, strong appetite in D.C. to fix this,” Moyer said. “I don't think that there was ever originally an appetite to ban it in the first place.”
Dee Dee Taylor, owner of 502 and 612 Hemp and president of the Kentucky Hemp Association, said nearly all of her products would be nixed under the federal ban, should it go into effect. She said it feels like there’s “always something,” attacking the hemp industry.
She said she started the business because her full-spectrum CBD products that contain THC help many of her customers deal with chronic pain, anxiety, sleep and more. It’s also helped her husband with a seizure disorder that didn’t respond to traditional pharmaceuticals, she said.
“I am all for regulations. The whole hemp association, we worked really hard to get regulations put in place in Kentucky,” Taylor said. “It should be 21 and up. There should be testing for it.”
Taylor said the framework already in place in Kentucky is workable; while she may have some complaints, especially around licensing fees, it’s possible to do business. She said she hopes the total ban never kicks in, but she worries that in its place will instead be unworkable federal regulations that still significantly hurt her business.
“I worry that they are going to cause an underground market with unregulated products, unsafe products, and it's actually going to end up hurting more people by what they're trying to ban,” Taylor said. “I just hope they don't make me a criminal because I never got in this industry to be a criminal. I got in it to help people because I saw how much it helped myself and my husband.”
