ANALYSIS: Congress Will Recriminalize Hemp-Derived THC Next Year

Near the top of Congress’s to-do list in 2025 is reauthorizing the 2018 Farm Bill, which expired at the end of September. The new version will almost certainly include an amended definition for hemp that excludes all forms of THC. This will close the loophole created by the bill that accidentally legalized the intoxicating cannabinoid when derived from hemp.

The Farm Bill’s definition of hemp only prohibited one form of THC so that its enactment de facto legalized every other intoxicating cannabinoid that hemp can produce. Because Congress didn’t intend to legalize these hemp products for consumers, it assigned ...