A hemp industry group is mobilizing against a hemp-derived THC product ban tucked into the recently passed congressional spending bill.
The U.S. Hemp Roundtable said that, among other things, it will seek an extension on the enforcement moratorium. The new language is designed to prevent the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products, including Delta-8, from being sold online, in gas stations, and corner stores, while preserving non-intoxicating CBD and industrial hemp products. It’s not scheduled to take effect until November 2026.
But the U.S. Hemp Roundtable is asking for that one-year grace period to be extended to two, extra time it said would allow for “the appropriate level of transparency and scrutiny needed to reach a responsible resolution.”
The group is also seeking to guarantee states’ full authority to regulate hemp across all form factors and strengths. For states without regulatory frameworks, it wants the federal floor on potency raised from the current 0.4 mg THC per container to a minimum of 5 mg THC per serving.
The U.S. Hemp Roundtable also opposes carveouts for any one form factor while backing federal regulation requiring GMP, third-party testing, truth-in-labeling, prohibiting misleading packaging, and banning sales to minors.
Without action, the group warns that the U.S. hemp industry will almost entirely disappear within a year. And it said hemp farmers are already feeling the effects, with millions of pounds of biomass at risk of going unsold this year and uncertainty surrounding next year’s crop, which would need to be planted soon.
