WASHINGTON – An impending federal ban on intoxicating hemp-based products also means scores of wellness products used by Minnesotans to treat pain, anxiety and sleeplessness will be illegal.
Many of these CBD products contain small amounts of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis plants like hemp outlawed in legislation passed and signed by President Donald Trump last month to end the government shutdown.
That means popular CBD gummies, tinctures, oils, capsules and lotions that are part of a booming industry would no longer be legal under federal law, joining gummies and drinks that contain much more hemp-derived THC on the federal hit list. The ban will go into effect Nov. 14, 2026.
Jonathan Miller, the general counsel for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, said the “vast majority” of CBD products have “a little bit of THC” — perhaps one or two milligrams, to have the effect customers seek.
Related: Minnesota’s hemp-produced THC beverage and edible industry reels from provision to outlaw products in shutdown bill
“People realized that to have the whole spectrum of CBD you have to have a little THC,” Miller said.
That’s a problem for the CBD industry. When Congress reversed a “loophole” in the 2018 farm bill that removed hemp from the controlled substances list last month, it determined that only hemp products that contain no more than 0.4mg of THC will be lawful.
That’s not to say all CBD products contain what will soon be federally outlawed levels of THC.
Some, known as “CBD isolate” products, contain no THC. Others, known as “broad spectrum” CBD products, contain other cannabinoids but only trace amounts of THC, if any. Then there is “full spectrum” CBD, which usually contains small amounts of THC as well as other cannabinoids.
Miller says scientists in his organization — which represents the interests of the hemp-derived THC product industry — have determined that the new hemp restrictions will decimate the CBD industry if they go into effect.
“The good news is that they don’t go into effect for a year and we hope we can fix (the law) in that time period,” Miller said.
Looking for relief
Paul Loeffler, the owner of three CBD “Health and Wellness Lounges” in Minnesota — in Minneapolis, Fridley and Andover — said he’s also optimistic Congress will change its mind.
“If not, it would end our business; it would bankrupt us,” he said.
Loeffler sells THC-infused hemp products, but he’s heavily invested in the CBD business. He said his customers aren’t the younger Minnesotans who now prefer THC-infused drinks over beer, but rather their parents and grandparents.
“We target a demographic that is 40 to 80 years old,” he said.
Loeffler said his customers are looking for relief from the normal aches and pains of aging, insomnia and other ailments and find it in CBD products, which are promoted as having healthful benefits and providing relaxation.
Loffler said his 78-year-old father once scoffed at the CBD products he sells as “witchcraft,” but now swears by them.
According to Lightspeed Commerce, the CBD market in the United States has experienced significant growth in recent years and was valued at about $6.7 billion in 2023. The industry has expanded so much that it now contains products for pets, as well as humans.
But it’s not clear how CBD products work to promote health and wellness. Scientists are still learning about how CBD affects the body.
However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Epidiolex, a medicine that contains CBD from hemp that is used to treat epilepsy and other rare seizure disorders.
And while the FDA has approved Epidiolex for its intended use, the agency has not approved other uses of CBD.
The FDA has also done little to study the effect of THC and has not approved any marketing application for cannabis for the treatment of any disease or condition.
However, the new federal law regulating hemp has tasked the FDA, with the help of other federal agencies, to produce a list within 90 days of all of the cannabinoids produced by a hemp plant, whether they be forms of THC or not.
‘It might as well be zero’
Loeffler said his most popular product is the CBD “sleep gummy” that fights insomnia.
“They would be gone,” he said, because the new federal law has placed the permissible levels of THC in CBD products so low that “it may as well be zero.”
Leili Fatehi, the owner of hemp supplier Crested River Cannabis Company in Morgan, a small town in Redwood County in western Minnesota, also said the 0.4mg-THC threshold, which she called “virtually nothing,” would not only eliminate most THC-infused drinks — which are capped in Minnesota at 10mg of THC, and gummies, which are capped at 5mg — but most CBD products, as well.
She joined the business this year, but Crested River has been in operation since 2018, the year the farm bill allowed for the production of hemp and hemp products. The business has a broad selection of products with varying levels of THC and CBD in them.
Related: As hemp THC industry lobbies Congress for regulations, could Minnesota be a national model?
Some CBD products have no THC in them and would therefore be unaffected, Fatehi said.
“We do a decent amount of business in CBD,” she said. “A lot of people buy CBD products who aren’t looking for anything that is intoxicating. They want it for inflammation or sleep or whatever, any range of wellness functions.”
For that reason, she’s optimistic that lawmakers will roll back the proposed restrictions on the industry in response to business and consumer pushbacks. “I think they’ll adjust it,” she said. “Now, what that will look like is an open question.”
The aim of the legislation was to regulate intoxicating substances, Loeffler said, not to bar CBD products with incidental amounts of THC in it.
Greater Minnesota reporter Brian Arola contributed to this report.
The post It’s not just THC gummies and drinks – CBD products on federal hit list, too appeared first on MinnPost.
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