Senate Move to Limit THC Sparks Panic in Hemp Industry

A sweeping rewrite of federal hemp policy, tucked into a government funding bill, is threatening to dismantle a multibillion-dollar industry. The effort has the potential to affect thousands of American farmers and retailers just as the federal government gears up to reopen.

In a sharp turn for U.S. agricultural policy, the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (also known as the 2018 farm bill), which legalized commercial cultivation of hemp, may be effectively undone by a provision in the current spending package that would ban most intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoid products.