GOP Senator Files Bill To Triple THC Cap For Hemp As Lawmakers Weigh Competing Cannabis Regulatory Proposals

A GOP senator has reintroduced a bill that would triple the concentration of THC that the hemp could legally contain, while addressing multiple other concerns the industry has expressed about the federal regulations.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) filed the legislation, titled the Hemp Economic Mobilization Plan (HEMP) Act, on Tuesday. The measure is identical to a version he’s proposed last Congress.

Hemp and its derivatives were legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill, but the industry has experienced multiple setbacks in the years since—and the proliferation of intoxicating cannabinoid products has led to pushes in Congress and state legislatures across the country to reign in the largely unregulated market.

In the interim, one of the most common complaints that lawmakers have heard from hemp businesses is that the crop is federally defined as containing no more than 0.3 percent THC. They say that’s too low, and so Paul’s bill would increase that threshold to 1 percent.

It would also address potential problems with testing requirements under U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations. Hemp processors currently get a 15-day window to test the crop’s flower to ensure that the THC concentration is within the allowed limits. But testing flower can be onerous and farmers have said it would stretch their resources thin, not to mention that the plant’s THC is significantly impacted by external factors.

To fix that issue, the bill calls for final hemp products themselves to be tested, rather than the initial flower from the plant.

“For years, I’ve led the fight in Washington to restore one of Kentucky’s most historically vital crops by legalizing industrial hemp,” Paul said in a press release. “We achieved a hard-won victory, but there is still work to do to prevent the federal government from weighing down our farmers with unnecessary bureaucratic micromanaging. My legislation will help this growing industry reach its full economic potential and bring transparency to government regulations.”

The legislation also sets documentation requirements for people transporting hemp shipments, intended to prevent further instances of law enforcement seizing the legal crop, believing it to be illicit marijuana. The bill expands the type of documentation that people could possess to demonstrate product legality. Whereas the initial version of Paul’s measure filed in 2020 would have required them to carry a certificate from a lab demonstrating that the product contains no more than 1 percent THC, they could now instead choose to simply bring a copy of the hemp producer’s license.

Paul’s new bill was introduced in same week that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced separate legislation that would create a federal regulatory framework for hemp-derived cannabinoids, allowing states to set their own rules for products such as CBD while also empowering the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure that certain safety standards are met in the marketplace—including making sure that products aren’t marketed to children.

Rather than impose an outright federal ban on hemp products containing traceable amounts of THC, as has been proposed in two major Republican-led pieces of legislation on the House side in recent months, Wyden’s bill offers a regulatory pathway that many hemp stakeholders view as a more sensible alternative that wouldn’t threaten to pull the rug out from under the industry.

The bill specifically preserves the rights of states to set tighter regulations, including banning the products altogether as has played out in certain markets—most recently California, where controversial emergency regulations took effect on Monday prohibiting the sale of products with with any “detectable amount of total THC.” Hemp stakeholders—including Cheech and Chong’s cannabis company—filed a lawsuit challenging the California policy on Tuesday.

The introduction of the senator’s measure comes as congressional lawmakers consider other controversial legislative proposals to impose a general ban on hemp-derived cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC.

—
Marijuana Moment is tracking more than 1,500 cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.

Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.
—

Rep. Mary Miller’s (R-IL) amendment to the 2024 Farm Bill, for example, was approved by a House committee in May and would remove cannabinoids that are “synthesized or manufactured outside of the plant” from the federal definition of legal hemp. The change is backed by prohibitionists as well as some marijuana companies, who’ve described the restriction as a fix to a “loophole” that was created under the 2018 Farm Bill that federally legalized hemp and its derivatives.

Anti-drug groups, law enforcement and some health organizations have called on Congress to embrace the ban, arguing that “trying to regulate semi-synthetic cannabinoids will not work.”

In addition to Miller’s amendment in the 2025 Farm Bill, the House Appropriations Committee in July approved a separate spending bill that contains a similar provision to prohibit cannabinoid products such as delta-8 THC and CBD containing any “quantifiable” amount of THC.

Hemp-derived cannabinoids also came up in a recent federal appeals court decision in which judges ruled that cannabinoids derived from hemp, such as THC-O-acetate, indeed qualify as hemp and are legal under the 2018 Farm Bill. In making that ruling, the court rejected the Drug Enforcement Administration’s more restrictive interpretation of the law.

How to address hemp-derived cannabinoids has caused some fractures within the cannabis community, and in some cases marijuana businesses have found themselves on the same side as prohibitionists in pushing a derivatives ban.

In a letter to congressional leaders ahead of Miller’s amendment, the U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC) proposed specific language they wanted to see included that would place hemp-derived cannabinoids containing any amount of THC under the definition of federally illegal marijuana.

While they’ve focused on the need to address public safety concerns related to unregulated “intoxicating” cannabinoid products such as delta-8 THC, some hemp industry advocates say the effect of the proposed language could be a ban on virtually all non-intoxicating CBD products as well, as most on the market contain at least trace levels of THC, consistent with the Farm Bill definition of hemp that allows for up to 0.3 percent THC by dry weight.

Meanwhile, the legislation that advanced through the House Agriculture Committee in May also contains provisions that would reduce regulatory barriers for certain hemp farmers and scale-back a ban on industry participation by people with prior drug felony convictions.

Specifically, it would make it so the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), states and tribal entities could choose to eliminate a policy that prevents people with felony drug convictions in the past 10 years from being licensed to produce industrial hemp.

However, advocates had hoped to see more expansive language, such as what was described in Senate Democrats’ recent summary of their forthcoming Farm Bill draft. Under that plan, there would be a mandate to eliminate the ban, rather than simply authorizing it, and it would cover all hemp producers, not just those growing it for non-extraction purposes.

The Senate Agriculture Committee has not yet released the draft text of their bill, so it remains to be seen if the summary description matches what will ultimately be released. Bipartisan House lawmakers filed standalone legislation last year that would broadly lift the felony ban for would-be hemp producers.

Lawmakers and stakeholders have also been eyeing a number of other proposals that could be incorporated into the Farm Bill—and which could come up as proposed amendments as the proposal moves through the legislative process—including measures to free up hemp businesses to legally market products like CBD as dietary supplements or in the food supply.

The hemp market started to rebound in 2023 after suffering significant losses the prior year, according to an annual industry report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that was released in April.

The data is the result of a survey that USDA mailed to thousands of hemp farmers across the U.S. in January. The first version of the department’s hemp report was released in early 2022, setting a “benchmark” to compare to as the industry matures.

Bipartisan lawmakers and industry stakeholders have sharply criticized FDA for declining to enact regulations for hemp-derived CBD, which they say is largely responsible for the economic stagnation.

To that end, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf testified before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee earlier this year, where he faced questions about the agency’s position that it needed additional congressional authorization to regulate the non-intoxicating cannabinoid.

USDA is also reportedly revoking hemp licenses for farmers who are simultaneously growing marijuana under state-approved programs, underscoring yet another policy conflict stemming from the ongoing federal prohibition of some forms of the cannabis plant.

For the time being, the hemp industry continues to face unique regulatory hurdles that stakeholders blame for the crop’s value plummeting in the short years since its legalization. Despite the economic conditions, however, a recent report found that the hemp market in 2022 was larger than all state marijuana markets, and it roughly equaled sales for craft beer nationally.

Meanwhile, internally at USDA, food safety workers are being encouraged to exercise caution and avoid cannabis products, including federally legal CBD, as the agency observes an “uptick” in positive THC tests amid “confusion” as more states enact legalization.

Read the text of the HEMP Act below: 

DeSantis Faces Backlash Over Taxpayer-Funded Ads Claiming Marijuana Legalization Leads To Increased Car Crashes Ahead Of Florida Vote

Photo courtesy of Brendan Cleak.