Key GOP Congressmen, Including Pro-Marijuana Legalization Member, Defend Effort to Ban Consumable Hemp Products

Key GOP congressional lawmakers—including one member who supports marijuana legalization—don’t seem especially concerned about provisions in a new spending bill that would put much of the hemp industry in jeopardy by banning most consumable products derived from the plant.

In interviews with Marijuana Moment, Congressional Cannabis Caucus co-chair Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glen Thompson (R-PA), as well as Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA), weighed in on the hemp language in the large-scale bill that cleared the the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies on Thursday.

Under the measure, hemp would be redefined under federal statute in a way that would prohibit cannabis products containing any “quantifiable” amount of THC or “any other cannabinoids that have similar effects (or are marketed to have similar effects) on humans or animals” as THC.

While Joyce backs legalizing and regulating cannabis for adult use, he said the language from the 2018 Farm Bill that federally legalized hemp and its derivatives “has been the stepping stone for the gas station delivery of intoxicants, whether that’s hemp or chemically manufactured

or whatever other shit it is that they sell at gas stations.”

“And there’s no age limit on it. So you’re handcuffing the regular cannabis industry that has strict standards that they have to meet everywhere, and yet this industry has flourished,” he said, adding that problems with the current law have been “exacerbated by people because there are some allegations that [intoxicating hemp products are] cannabis. It’s not hemp anymore.”

The congressman also seemed to endorse a push in Ohio to make it so intoxicating hemp products could only be sold to adults at licensed marijuana dispensaries. He said he told Gov. Mike DeWine (R) that, regardless of his views on the issue, the problem is the “gas station stuff that the kids are getting that all these people are up in arms about.”

That said, Joyce said while he does feel the 2018 Farm Bill’s hemp provisions included a “loophole” that’s been exploited, he hasn’t read the text of the latest legislation yet.

“I’m all for regulating the industry… It has to be regulated so that only adults are getting it,” he said.

To be clear, beyond simply regulating hemp products for adult access, the appropriations legislation that’s advancing in the House would have the effect of outright banning even non-intoxicating CBD products that contain trace amounts of THC, industry advocates say.

Thompson, for his part, said that although his committee “improved upon” and “clarified” federal hemp laws between the 2014 and 2018 versions of the Farm Bill, “unfortunately there were some unintended consequences.”

“Some folks that really took advantage of [the hemp language] and they used it to manufacture intoxicants, and I think that’s what [the House Appropriations Committee] is trying to address,” he said. However, he said the more likely long-term solution will come through the next iteration of the large-scale agriculture legislation, rather than an appropriations bill that must be annually renewed.

“This will be determined only within the Farm Bill, and the committee will work its will on it,” the congressman said. “I can tell you that there are a lot of members of the Agriculture Committee in the House who were not happy with how some really took advantage of that language. It was supposed to be about food and fiber—not about intoxicants.”

Meanwhile, Correa, who supports marijuana legalization, said he’s “not quite sure what’s motivating” Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), a vociferous opponent of cannabis reform who chairs the House subcommittee that advanced the spending bill on Thursday. But the congressman said he hopes Harris will be “okay with our psychedelics stuff,” referring to efforts to support research into plant medicine as part of his Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus.

Harris said in opening remarks at Thursday’s hearing that the legislation “closes the hemp loophole from the 2018 Farm Bill that has resulted in the proliferation of intoxicating cannabinoid products, including delta-8 and hemp flower being sold online and in gas stations nationwide under the false guise of being ‘USDA approved.’”

“As many states have stepped in to curb these dangerous products from reaching consumers, particularly children, it’s time for Congress to act to close this loophole, while protecting the legitimate industrial hemp industry,” he said.

The provisions in the bill now heading to a full committee vote would effectively eliminate the most commonly marketed hemp products within the industry, as even non-intoxicating CBD items that are sold across the country typically contain trace amounts of THC. Under current law, those products are allowed if they contain no more than 0.3 percent THC by dry weight.

The hemp language is largely consistent with appropriations and agriculture legislation that was introduced, but not ultimately enacted, under the last Congress.

Hemp industry stakeholders rallied against that proposal, an earlier version of which was also included in the base bill from the subcommittee last year. It’s virtually identical to a provision of the 2024 Farm Bill that was attached by a separate committee last May via an amendment from Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL), which was also not enacted into law.

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Jonathan Miller, general counsel of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, told congressional lawmakers in April that the market is “begging” for federal regulations around cannabis products.

At the hearing, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) also inquired about FDA inaction around regulations, sarcastically asking if it’d require “a gazillion bureaucrats that work from home” to regulate cannabinoids such as CBD.

The consumable hemp product crackdown isn’t exclusive to the federal government, as multiple states—from California to Florida—have moved to ban intoxicating cannabinoids in recent months.

In Texas, the legislature recently delivered a bill to the governor that would outlaw all consumable hemp-derived cannabinoid products containing any detectable THC. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has declined to say how he will act on the measure.

Meanwhile, alcohol industry representatives descended on Washington, D.C. in April to urge members of Congress to create a federal regulatory framework for intoxicating hemp-derived products such as cannabinoid-infused beverages—a market segment that’s ballooned since the legalization of hemp through the 2018 Farm Bill.

A report from Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) last year called cannabis a “significant threat” to the alcohol industry, citing survey data that suggests more people are using cannabis as a substitute for alcoholic beverages such a beer and wine.

Last November, meanwhile, a beer industry trade group put out a statement of guiding principles to address what it called “the proliferation of largely unregulated intoxicating hemp and cannabis products,” warning of risks to consumers and communities resulting from THC consumption.

The LCB contributed reporting from Washington, D.C. 

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Photo courtesy of Brendan Cleak.