CBS Colorado reports that Colorado’s hemp-derived THC industry is staring at yet another round of federal uncertainty. A crackdown scheduled to take effect in November could effectively push many intoxicating hemp products off the market, but the U.S. Senate has approved a spending measure that would delay implementation until December. The House still has to agree. So, naturally, businesses are being asked to plan their futures around Washington’s favorite regulatory framework: maybe.
The fight traces back to the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp federally and opened a pathway for intoxicating hemp-derived THC products. Congress later moved to close that loophole. Now lawmakers are debating whether to enforce the coming restrictions, delay them, regulate the products differently, or carve out exceptions for low-dose beverages. Meanwhile, Colorado companies like Fabric are still making products, hiring people and trying to figure out whether today’s lawful business model becomes tomorrow’s federal liability.
The Bullet Point Brief
- November is coming. Maybe. Federal restrictions are still scheduled to take effect in November, but the Senate has approved language that could push the deadline into December. The House has not signed off yet. Nothing says “business certainty” like Congress moving the expiration date one square at a time.
- Colorado already regulates these products. Fabric co-owner Tom Eddleston told CBS Colorado that the state limit for the type of product his company sells is 1.75 milligrams of THC, while Fabric’s beverage contains 1.5 milligrams. His argument is not “let anything go.” It is that regulation makes more sense than flattening the whole category with a federal ban.
- The critics have a legitimate concern. Opponents argue Congress never intended the Farm Bill to create a nationwide class of intoxicating hemp products and say those products should be removed from the market. Fine. That is an argument worth having. What is considerably harder to defend is creating the legal opening, letting an industry grow inside it, and then acting surprised when businesses actually built businesses there.
- Congress is now considering exceptions to the thing it is threatening to ban. Lawmakers are discussing a possible carveout for certain low-dose THC beverages like Fabric’s. Which means Washington has reached the classic stage of federal policymaking where it may need a loophole to fix the loophole it created while closing the first loophole.
- Colorado companies get to absorb the uncertainty. The federal government can debate deadlines and carveouts. Businesses have to make decisions about production, inventory, investment and compliance in the real world. Every month Washington dithers is another month somebody outside Washington has to gamble real money on what Congress might do next.
My Bottom Line
You do not have to love every hemp-derived THC product to recognize what a regulatory clown show this has become.
Congress created the opening in 2018. Businesses operated inside it. States developed rules around it. Consumers bought the products. Now Washington wants everyone to believe the shocking development here is that an industry emerged. Apparently nobody in the room considered the possibility that when government says something is legal, Americans may have the audacity to build companies around it.
If Congress believes intoxicating hemp products pose legitimate health or safety problems, then write clear rules. Establish reasonable standards. Decide what can be sold, at what potency, under what labeling requirements and to whom. Then enforce those rules. What government should not do is keep lawful businesses strapped into the federal slot machine, pulling the handle every few months to see whether their business model comes up legal, banned or “check back after the next spending bill.”
Colorado companies can deal with regulation. What they cannot responsibly plan around is regulatory roulette. The biggest sin here is not that Washington is reconsidering hemp policy. Government should correct bad policy when necessary. The sin is refusing to make a damn decision while expecting everybody else to bear the cost of its indecision.
Source: Politics – CBS Colorado
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