A Maryland couple who grows and sells hemp products says legislation included in the bill to reopen the federal government will put them out of business.
The surprise provision in the funding bill that Congress passed late Wednesday bans nearly all hemp-derived consumer products by putting a cap on the amount of THC allowed in those products, CNBC reports.
Meadow Mountain Hemp is a small farm in Western Maryland that grows hemp to make CBD oils, gummies, tinctures and other products it says are not intoxicating.
Darryl Glotfelty and his wife started the farm in 2019. Glotfelty said people use their products to relieve pain, anxiety and help with sleep.
“There’s so many people out there that are using these products daily and legislation like this could essentially wipe these products from the marketplace,” he said.
Hemp was legalized as part of the 2018 farm bill for industrial uses like rope, textiles and seed.
But a loophole made it possible for companies to make hemp-derived products that contain THC, the psychoactive compound that gives people a high. Companies have used that loophole to sell products like Delta 8 and THC drinks at gas stations and convenience stores. Critics say the gummies and adult drinks are too accessible to children.
“I understand they’re trying to limit what type of derivatives are on the marketplace, but it’s going to affect small farms like ours across the country,” he said.
The new legislation states products can’t have more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container. While hemp has lower levels of THC than marijuana, the new threshold would wipe out 95% of the $28 billion hemp retail market, the U.S. Hemp Roundtable said.
Glotfelty said the bill will force farmers like him to pull their products even though, he said, they don’t have intoxicating effects.
“We’re not the bad actors here, and we’re going to be punished for, for those bad actors who are … putting products on the marketplace that are generally not safe and not regulated,” he said.
The U.S. Hemp Roundtable said the industry employs 300,000 workers and the new law could cost states $1.5 billion in lost tax revenue.
Glotfelty and others said they intend to fight to get the rules changed before the new law takes effect in one year.
“For a law like this to essentially wipe our farm off the map and our product line off the map, is ridiculous, in my mind, and we’re going to do everything we can to stop it,” he said.
Various experts and groups in the marijuana industry, a competitor to hemp, support the changes.
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