The US Hemp Roundtable has issued the following statement on recent changes in hemp regulation.
This is an inflection point for hemp. If no Congressional action is taken in the next 353 days, 95 percent of hemp extract products now on the market will be classified as Schedule 1 narcotics. The remaining 5 percent of THC-free isolates would be nearly impossible to manufacture under the extraction limits. Much of the industrial hemp industry would be thrown into disarray, especially grain farming, and the regulated marijuana market would face major disruptions in its cannabinoid supply chain.
Our farmers are already under pressure. A member of the Roundtable's Farmers Advisory Committee shared that he could be left with more than one million dollars of unsold biomass from this year's harvest because of broken contracts. Next year's crops are in jeopardy as well. Farmers have only a few months to decide whether they can even put seed in the ground.
The situation is made worse by some state policymakers who are treating the prospective hemp ban as inevitable and pushing legislation that mirrors the McConnell/Harris ban language.
This is why we are moving quickly. Our first priority is to secure an additional one-year moratorium on the effective date of the ban. Public backlash has been strong, and more Members of Congress are speaking up for regulation instead of prohibition. An extra year would provide the transparency and scrutiny needed to craft a responsible solution. We ask you to join our grassroots effort to convince Congress to add this extension to the continuing resolution in late January.
Our next step is to support efforts led by Sen. Rand Paul and members of the Minnesota congressional delegation to ensure that states maintain the authority to regulate hemp without federal interference, including setting their own THC potency limits and permitted product forms.
We are also working to shape the federal regulatory framework that would replace the ban. We have been meeting with our champions, Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, who are preparing legislation to be introduced in the coming weeks. After extensive conversations on Capitol Hill, the only path with bipartisan support would extend the hemp ban moratorium from one to two years, guarantee full state authority to regulate hemp across form factors and strengths, raise the federal potency floor for states without frameworks, oppose carveouts for specific product types, establish strong federal standards for manufacturing and labeling, ban synthetic cannabinoids masquerading as hemp while allowing bioconversions for naturally occurring cannabinoids, and maintain a unity-first approach to keep the entire hemp industry alive.
This is an existential fight, and we cannot let perfect be the enemy of good. We are focused on what is politically possible. Please stand with us to secure a one-year extension on the ban, protect states' rights to set potency limits, and build a long-term regulatory solution that preserves the future of the hemp industry in this new political landscape.
The US Hemp Roundtable will be hosting a webinar on the latest updates in hemp regulations on Wednesday, December 10th at 3pm ET. Registration is available at the link here.
For more information:
U.S. Hemp Roundtable
Email: [email protected]
www.hempsupporter.com
