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A $28B hemp THC industry is fighting to save itself from a looming federal ban · Best of: Features

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  A twenty eight billion dollar hemp THC industry is fighting to save
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  itself from a looming federal ban. His
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  article is being read by an automated voice generated by Everlett. In
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  a
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  commercial kitchen outside Raleigh, North Carolina, Nicholas Holmes spreads a blue green
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  goo into a gridded mold, making one of his company's signature products,
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  Potent THC Gummies, featuring the primary intoxicating compound found in marijuana It's
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  a business he might soon have to give up. America's multi billion
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  dollar market for impairing hemp products, from THC seltzers sold at some
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  target stores to smokable cannabis flowers, and different from the regulated legal
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  marijuana industry, faces potential elimination after Congress voted to close a loophole
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  in federal law that has allowed it to flourish. Advocates for the
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  industry, along with some lawmakers, are fighting to save it. The short
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  term government funding bill signed by President Donald Trump last month delayed
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  the effective date of the hemp THC ban from november twelfth to
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  december eleventh, giving Congress more time to consider regulating the products rather
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  than banning the It's such a weird spot to be in, said
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  Holmes. You worked one hundred hours a week for the past four
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  years, and, yeah, you made some money. But now you might have
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  nothing to show for it. Senator Mitch McConnell closed a loophole in
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  the hemp law he championed. Marijuana and hemp are the same plant,
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  cannabis. Marijuana is cultivated for high levels of THC in its flowers.
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  Low THC hemp has historically been grown for its sturdy fibers, food,
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  or wellness products. Rope knot dope was long the motto of farmers
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  who supported legalizing hemp. To give farmers a new cash crop, Kentucky
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  Republican Senator Mitch McConnell successfully pushed the legalization of industrial hemp in
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  the twenty eighteen Farm Bill. But the way that law defined hemp
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  as having less than zero point three percent of a specific type
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  of THC, called Delta nine, by weight, opened a huge loophole. Beverages
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  or snacks could meet that threshold and still contain more than enough
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  THC to get people high. Vape oil, gummy candies, chips, sodas, and
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  other unregulated untested products
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  laden with hemp derived THC spread around the country, including in gas
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  stations or convenience stores, where they were available even to teens. Some
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  businesses start idling marijuana under the theory that raw marijuana's THC is
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  in a form called THC a which only turns into impairing Delta
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  Nine when heated or burned. The products evaded state prohibitions on recreational
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  weed or undercut heavily taxed and regulated cannabis where it is legal.
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  Dozens of States responded by regulating or banning impairing hemp products. McConnell
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  finally closed the loophole late last year by inserting a hemp THC
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  ban into a measure that ended the longest government shutdown in history.
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  The ban which limits the amount of THC in hemp products to
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  0.4 milligrams per container wouldn't take effect for a year. An industry
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  tries to save itself. The
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  ban threatens to reduce retail revenues by twenty eight point three billion
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  dollars, displacing two hundred twenty five thousand jobs and reducing state sales
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  tax potential by two point one billion dollars, according to a report
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  last month from Whitney Economics, which studies the market. The industry hopes
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  to save itself by restricting impairing products to people twenty one and
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  older, limiting how much THC can be in a package, and banning
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  imported cannabis compounds. The owners of Kentucky's Cornbread Hemp, Eric Zipperl and
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  Jim Higdon, are prepared to cap their products at, say, five milligrams,
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  if that's what it takes to win support from lawmakers. But the
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  zero point four milligram limit would destroy their business, they said. If
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  it goes through in December, his place is toast. It's gone, Zipril
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  said. They have one hundred and five employees, sell hemp beverages in
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  eighteen states, and expect to bring in sixty five million dollars this
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  year. The zero point four milligram cap is so low that it
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  would ban even some non impairing C B D products, such as
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  topical lotions, said Jonathan Miller, general counsel of the industry group US
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  Hemp Roundtable. Some consider other work. Holmes, who runs Duterman
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  Farms in Clayton, North Carolina, entered the hemp industry after losing his
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  job as a personal trainer during the COVID nineteen pandemic. North North
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  Carolina has not legalized either medical or recreational marijuana, but many of
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  the edibles Holmes makes are more potent than what's available in states
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  that have. When I started seeing THC edibles being sold, I was
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  like, I got eighteen months to two years to make money in
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  this industry, Holmes said. No way is the government just going to
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  sit here and let us do this when this was supposed to
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  be for fiber, plastics, building materials, rope. That was more than four
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  years ago. Holmes kept his capital investments minimal, fearing a shutdown. He
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  has considered making other products, such as creatine gummies, if he has
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  to get out of the hemp THC business. Things have been more
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  stressful for others. Drinkin Buds, a cannabis beverage company in Sheboygan, Wisconsin,
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  has mothballed production. Co founder Matt Swanson took himself off the payroll
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  on Thursday. There's just so much uncertainty, Swanson said. I'm actively looking
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  for employment. Allies and opponents line up. Among those who have come
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  to the
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  defense of the hemp industry are alcohol retailers, including Total Wine and
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  more. Sales of cannabis seltzers have helped offset falling alcohol sales. Opponents
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  include people who say the products are dangerous. I have sympathy for
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  people losing their jobs, but I also have sympathy for the many,
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  many more people whose lives are affected by this, said Kevin Sabet,
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  CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana. The regulated legal marijuana industry, which
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  sees hemp THC as unfair competition, also supports the ban. Corey Harris,
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  a lobbyist for state legal cannabis operators, suggested that dire predictions about
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  its effect on the intoxicating hemp industry are overstated. While the ban
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  would end interstate sales of products like THC seltzers and gummies, some
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  could find a home in legal in state markets, he said. It's
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  possible THC drinks could be sold at stores in the states where
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  they were produced. States like North Carolina could adopt legal hemp programs.
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  If you go from having virtually no rules to suddenly having an
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  awful lot of rules, that's a buzzkill, Harris said. Welcome to our
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  world. But if you establish your whole business within a legally questionable
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  loophole, that's just sort of the risk you take. Associated Press reporters
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  Alan G. Breed in Clayton, North Carolina, and Dylan Loven in Louisville,
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  Kentucky contributed.