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Hemp Isn’t A Loophole—It’s A Legal Industry, And It’s Under Attack (Op-Ed)

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6 months ago

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“What this will do is put consumers at risk, steal tax revenue from municipalities and states, and ultimately hurt farmers across the nation.”

By Adam Stettner, FundCanna

Congress did something terribly shorthanded. They crammed a massive policy change into a budget deal and mistakenly called it “public safety.”

If the changes stand, it will wipe out a more than $28 billion market, kill about 300,000 jobs, and eliminate one of the best national paths we have today to safe and sensible cannabis reform and regulation. A prime example is when the government burned down a house to kill the spider.

This is not politics. The 2018 Farm Bill is an example of evil politics being used to kill an industry without having the courage to reverse it and fight back.

The Straw Man: “Unregulated hemp is dangerous, so we need a blanket ban.”

Proponents of the change argued that hemp-derived intoxicants such as Delta-8 THC are a public health threat. That it is sold to children. They are untested. That they escaped a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill.

Although there is some element of truth in their arguments, this is not indicative of the whole truth.

In short, that narrative is written to support blanket prohibition. Every industry has bad actors, companies and people who game the system. Instead of destroying an entire industry to get rid of bad actors, you analyze the problem, determine the underlying problem, and use logic and law to create, regulate, and enforce structure.

That is not what Congress has done.

Leading this charge is Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who appears to be trying to clean up what he sees as a legislative mess he authored. In 2018, he supported the Farm Bill that legalized hemp. Today, he says this law inadvertently unleashed an unregulated flood of what he calls “gas station cannabis” and that the only solution is to shut down the entire industry.

The correct solution? A framework that includes maximum potency, laboratory testing, package size, distribution guidelines, age conditions, and a structure to enforce the above. All of this would address concerns about “gas station hemp” and the risk to children.

In short, I’m all for regulation. This is not a regulation. It is eradication.

Reality: This is a legal, licensed, thriving and job-creating industry

The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp. That law was written, passed and signed by Congress and President Donald Trump, who has since endorsed the benefits of CBD and cannabinoids and asserted that cannabis policy should be left up to the states.

Since then, an entire market has grown up around hemp-derived cannabinoids. Manufacturers, retailers and financial partners have invested hundreds of millions in business compliance, taxation and job creation.

Cannabis entrepreneurs have built legitimate and highly regulated businesses that now employ hundreds of thousands of Americans. Their success does not depend on speculation, but on sustainable business models, sound financial management and sustainable access to capital;

The new provisions ban products containing more than 0.4 mg of THC per container. If passed, that would wipe out 95 percent of the hemp-derived market, according to industry estimates. And it would do so without holding a single hearing or public comment period, driving an industry underground to beg for regulation.

What this will do is put consumers at risk, steal tax revenue from municipalities and states, and ultimately hurt farmers nationwide. It will drive cultivation, production and manufacturing into the black market as it has done in the case of prohibition or unexpected legal structures.

One only has to look at the state’s legal cannabis market, which still operates under federal prohibition, to see a legal market that has grown to $35 billion but has simultaneously fueled an illegal market north of $100 billion.

The ban doesn’t work. Half-baked structures and scattered laws without a clear framework, understanding of basic economic principles and lack of regulation/enforcement do not work.

“This is just the beginning”? Let’s not invent ghosts

Some in the broader cannabis industry fear this is the horse behind future attacks on legal THC. This paranoia is understandable, but wrong.

This is not part of a coordinated federal crackdown. It’s a last-minute misguided attempt to solve a real consumer safety issue using the wrong tool. The maturity of the cannabis industry will be determined by its ability to distinguish between good policy and bad process. It is the latter.

Every part of the plant, regardless of label, requires logic, science-backed education, data, debate, and sensible, thoughtful regulation.

Do you want security? Regulate, not abolish

Intoxicating products must be tested, sales must be restricted to adults, packaging and potency must be clearly labeled. This is called regulation.

We regulate alcohol, tobacco and caffeine. We regulate thousands of other industries. What we don’t do is ban entire industries through the fine print in budget bills.

If Congress wants to fix the Farm Bill’s flaws, hold hearings. Invite scientists. Ask the Food and Drug Administration for guidance. Bring industry leaders to the table. What we don’t need is a hidden policy reversal tucked into a spending bill without public debate.

Over the decades, prohibition brought us figures like Al Capone and El Chapo, and created drug trafficking from all corners of the world. It involves crime, money laundering, loss of life, and it’s all pointless. What will the ban create in this case? Just imagine.

Although scientifically less dangerous than cannabis, the regulated alcohol and tobacco industries today employ millions, generate billions in sales and, above all, provide consumers with standardized and safer products through proper oversight. Yet we continue to vilify and ban rather than regulate.

The financial consequences are real

Ban hemp, and you haven’t gotten rid of “gas station” hemp.

You kill an entire industry, even the good parts. You eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs. You eliminate tax revenue at the federal and state and municipal levels. You immediately take $30 billion out of the economy and push that money into illegal channels. You’re directly putting the product you’ve outlawed into the hands of children and those you claim to protect. Eliminating jobs and the possibility of regulation, oversight, safer products and age-status in the process.

Banning the industry does not protect consumers, it penalizes law-abiding and responsible business owners who are open to regulation and oversight.

The cannabis industry doesn’t want a free pass, but it deserves fair and responsible regulation. That starts with policy making that is deliberate, transparent and informed by the people doing the work on the ground.

Congress, your actions have created a much bigger problem than the problem you were trying to solve. If you want to keep our children safe and support our farmers and industries, do it the right way by regulating with logic. There is a way to have it all, this isn’t it.

Adam Stettner, CEO of FundCanna, has overseen more than $20 billion in loans in underserved markets.

Max Jackson’s photo.

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Bountiful Farms goes best in New England at NECANN Cup

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7 hours ago

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May 25, 2026

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Bountiful Farms placed first and second in the licensed solvent-free concentrate division at this year’s NECANN Cup, then also won the mixed licensed and unlicensed division to win best overall, putting the Massachusetts operator in the running for best in show with the highest-scoring product in New England.

© Bountiful Farms

NECANN is the largest B2B cannabis event in New England and the second largest in the country, attracting over 9,000 attendees. Everything is unbranded. Licensed and unlicensed operators in the six New England states compete only in product. Zachary Taylor, Director of Agriculture at Bountiful Farms, says the win for Maine’s craft growers means a lot to him and his team. “Whenever you compete against Maine, with its regulations and the craft culture of the caretakers, to be considered a craft on our scale is the greatest honor. When you look at cups across the nation, you see cups of culture, and Maine is always well represented. To be recognized on the same playing field and to excel at this scale is very difficult, and I don’t think that’s what people mean.”

Of course, rosin isn’t given more forcefully to Bountiful Farms. But Zach in a clean way© Bountiful Farms he says, “A good raisin doesn’t appear out of nowhere. It comes from the flower.” The award-winning genetics were bred by Crystal Rose, and built around a high-resin, terpene-rich expression.

“The buds come in within 15 minutes of harvest, it’s like a timer,” Zach says. “Then we move them to a chest freezer, before moving them to an aisle freezer, where they’ll sit until they’re cleaned. All the rosin is pressed by hand in a hydraulic press.” At its scale, Bountiful Farms must use automation to achieve consistently high quality. “But we have very practical components,” he said. “The backlash of the press tells you how hard it is to go. Same approach with agitation, for example. The flower heads themselves, how we maintain the integrity of the trichome, the rise time of the wash, the temperatures: everything is handled like a small-scale race.”

That level of attention comes from the team. Matt Bearup, now a solventless QC manager, started growing and built the hash lab from the ground up all by himself. There are currently eight hash makers, all passionate about complex genetics and terpenes. Strains include not only the main terpenes, but also tasting notes and effects. Using the SC Lab framework, limonene as the current focus. “There’s not a lot of that in the hashish sector in particular. Several growers are moving in that direction.”

© Bountiful Farms

“There’s not a lot like it. Several breeders are moving in that direction.”

Bountiful Farms has been producing rosin since 2021, when the category had little traction© Bountiful Farms in Massachusetts. Since then, the company has expanded into a high-end cultivation center to produce even more rosin. They operate two production rooms and processes not only for themselves, but also for other clients including Native Sun, Breathe Free and u4ea. They have recently opened two new dispensaries, allowing them to expand into recreational retail from 2021. Another limited release of the full melt is planned, along with a dual-cartridge solvent-free pen developed with O2 Vapes, two flavors in one device.

“When you bring award-winning companies together, you get products that represent the industry at its best. Massachusetts deserves its place among the leaders in this industry. When we win, the industry wins.”

For more information:
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Federal Drug Testing Rule Will Require ‘Directly Observed’ Urine Collection From Truck Drivers

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7 hours ago

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May 25, 2026

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“A month that goes by without an oral fluid test is another month when federal employees with paruresis face anxiety, discrimination, and barriers.”

By Kastalia Medrano, Filter

The Department of Transportation will require “directly observed” urine drug testing in federal employment situations where saliva testing is required but not possible. The clarification of DOT drug and alcohol testing procedures is the latest development in a years-long push by the trucking industry. oral fluid testing as an alternative to urine testing.

The new rule was published in the Federal Register on May 11, and will go into effect on June 10.

Truck drivers, who are subject to a large number of federal regulations, do not choose the method of drug testing, while DOT-regulated employers do. The campaign to implement oral fluid testing has been led by the American Trucking Association (ATA), which believes it is necessary to “keep drivers with disabilities off the road and maintain the trucking industry’s commitment to safety.”

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) approved lab-based oral fluid testing in 2019, and the DOT finalized its regulations in 2023 allowing employers to choose this as an alternative to urine testing. But the actual implementation requires at least. Two laboratories approved by the Food and Drug Administration to process tests—one for the initial analysis and another to confirm the results. There are currently zero.

Oral fluid testing is attractive to many employers for a number of reasons, one of which is its effectiveness in detecting drug use within hours compared to urine drug testing. While the trucking industry has become the public face of the campaign, the regulations also affect federal workers in the commercial aviation, railroad, public transportation and pipeline sectors.

One of the main concerns expressed by the trucking industry has been that urine drug screens are not visible, making it easier to avoid oral fluid testing. Another concern is paruresis, commonly referred to as “shy bladder” syndrome: if a driver can’t urinate when they need to, they’re stuck for a three-hour wait, which obviously affects their arrival time. And if they still cannot produce urine during this period, they are considered to have refused to take the test and are removed from their duties. To return, they must “pass” a urine test watched by a same-sex observer.

New DOT the rule also updates existing terminology by replacing the word “gender” with the word “sex” in accordance with President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order “Defending Women from Gender Ideological Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

“A month that goes without an oral fluid test is another month when federal employees with paruresis face anxiety, discrimination and professional barriers,” Dr. Steven Soifer, co-founder of the International Paruresis Society, said in March. “We have been working on this issue since our inception (30 years ago). Our members ask the same question every day: When will the federal government finish the work it has already approved?”

In April, at the request of ATA, six members of Congress he wrote Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services citing FDA regulatory hurdles as the reason why laboratories in the United States are not certified to process oral fluid tests.

They cited an analysis by Quest Diagnostics that showed a 370 percent increase in “replaced” urine specimens from 2022 to 2023. Quest has its own laboratory-based oral fluid collection method, Quantisal™, and has therefore been an ardent supporter of the campaign.

On May 1, the FDA a notice with the intention of considering revising the requirements for toxicology studies. That same day SAMHSA a the list It confirms that currently certified laboratories, which will probably be updated in the future, but are not available at the moment.

However, at the end of the day, HHS handles oral fluid testing in a similar scenario to hair follicle testing. The department promised to create guidelines for hair testing in 2015, but has yet to do so.

This the article originally posted by The filteran online magazine that deals with drug use, drug policy and human rights from a harm reduction perspective. Follow Filter on Bluesky, X or Facebookand sign up for their newsletter.

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TSA clarifies that cannabis policy has not changed

Published

1 day ago

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May 24, 2026

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Over the past week, many news organizations have been running exaggerated headlines about a supposed change by the federal government to allow marijuana to be brought into airports and airplanes. But it’s not true, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) tells Marijuana Moment.

“TSA’s policy on medical marijuana has not changed,” a TSA spokeswoman said in an email Wednesday.

“According to the TSA website: If any illegal substance or evidence of criminal activity is found during the security screening, TSA will refer the matter to law enforcement,” they said. While it’s true that the agency’s list of medical marijuana “What can I bring?” section of its website was updated on April 27, there were no major changes in policy.

Currently, the website says “Yes,” passengers can carry medical marijuana in carry-on and checked bags with special instructions. But the TSA cannabis policy has said “Yes” to medical marijuana, with the same caveats, since 2019.

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