Hemp ban countdown: Square cuts off CBD, farmers bail, fix bills sit untouched
Square's deadline to pull hemp and CBD items passed Oct. 15. Growers are switching crops, the FDA hasn't published key lists, and no rescue bill has gotten a vote.
The hemp ban isn't in force yet, but the market is already shutting down around it. Square told merchants to scrub every CBD and hemp-derived product from their catalogs, in store and online, by October 15. That date has passed. Accounts stay open for everything else, and Square said it had nothing to share on whether it would reverse course if the ban got pushed back again.
Upstream, it's worse. NPR talked to a Minnesota farmer who planted soybeans instead of hemp for the first time since 2019 and is still sitting on about 15,000 pounds of last year's crop. A Twin Cities company that makes emulsions for low-dose THC drinks says orders have flattened and the business could shrink hard or close.
Meanwhile Washington is idle. As of October 19, the FDA still hadn't published the cannabinoid lists the new law requires. Bills to delay the ban to November 2028, repeal it outright, or regulate hemp THC instead are all parked in committee. That includes a Klobuchar–Paul bill that would let states do the regulating. None has had a vote.
Why it matters: Even if Congress acts at the last minute, the supply chain is already unwinding, and some of those businesses won't come back.
