Senate votes 90-6 to push the federal hemp THC ban back a month
The stopgap spending bill moves the hemp THC ban from Nov. 12 to Dec. 11. An amendment to keep the original date got tabled 61-32.
Hemp got a short reprieve. On August 8, the Senate passed a stopgap funding bill 90-6 that funds the government through December 11 and pushes the federal ban on intoxicating hemp products back from November 12 to December 11.
Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) tried to strip the delay with an amendment. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) moved to table it, and that passed 61-32. Several sources told Marijuana Moment that President Trump called Budd about it. Budd's office said Trump didn't explicitly ask him to drop the amendment, but that hemp "certainly came up."
The ban comes from a law enacted last year that limits legal hemp products to 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container. That wipes out most intoxicating hemp, and advocates say full-spectrum CBD too. The delay doesn't cover everything: synthetic cannabinoids the plant can't produce naturally still lose legal status on November 12.
Why it matters: A month isn't a fix, and a White House official reportedly said there would be no more extensions. Congress now has a hard deadline to regulate hemp instead of banning it.
