Over the decades, the legality of cultivating hemp in the United States has gone through some changes. In 1970, the Controlled Substances Act made hemp cultivation totally illegal, rolling "hemp" in with the definition of "marijuana." This criminalized approach to hemp changed with the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed hemp from the definition of "marijuana" and gave states a chance to create their own hemp regulation programs. Within the past year, there has been a change made to the regulation of the cultivation of hemp at the state level, as well as a change in the federal legal definition of "hemp." Both of these changes will likely affect hemp producers.
After the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, the state of Ohio, through the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA), submitted its plan to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to regulate the cultivating and processing of hemp. In the spring of 2020, ODA began accepting applications for both the cultivation and processing of hemp.
As was shared in a blog post last summer, language included in the state operating budget, passed in June 2025, gave up ODA's authority to regulate hemp cultivation within the state. On July 25, 2025, ODA started the process of transferring the regulation of hemp cultivation to the USDA. As of January 1, 2026, if you are growing hemp in Ohio, you must be licensed through USDA, and all ODA cultivation licenses are now void. ODA continues to regulate hemp processors. ODA has a webpage explaining these changes, which is available here. For further reading, the state operating budget, H.B. 96, is available here.
Federal changes to the legal definition of "hemp"
When cultivation of hemp was legalized in the 2018 Farm Bill, "hemp" was defined by Congress as "the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant, including the seeds thereof and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinolic [THC] concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis." Following the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, however, Congress discovered that this definition of "hemp" created an unintended loophole. While delta-9 THC is the primary psychoactive compound that can lead to intoxication found both in both hemp and marijuana, it is not the not the only such compound. Since its legalization, hemp products have been sold that do not contain more than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC, but do contain other cannabinoids, like delta-8 THC, that can cause intoxication if ingested.
To close this loophole allowing intoxicating hemp products, Congress changed the definition of hemp in H.R. 5371, which was signed into law on November 12, 2025. The federal definition of hemp is now "the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant, including the seeds thereof and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers, whether growing or not, with a total [THC] concentration (including tetrahydrocannabinolic acid [THCA]) of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis." As a result, instead of just regulating the amount of delta-9 THC, federal law now regulates the total THC concentration of hemp and its components. Thus, growers who have hemp plants that have a total THC concentration of more than 0.3 percent would be in violation of federal law. Importantly, this definition also applies to industrial hemp, or "hemp grown for the use of the stalk, whole grain, oil, cake, nut, hull, or any other non-cannabinoid derivative of the seeds." The new definition of hemp becomes effective a year from the signing of the law, on November 12, 2026. The text of H.R. 5371 is available here.
Source: The Ohio State University
