Legalizing Intoxicating Hemp Products Wasn’t A ‘Loophole’ But Was Intentional, Expert Who Helped Draft Farm Bill Says
Intoxicating hemp products weren’t a loophole; they were policy by design—written in the same ink that drew the 2018 Farm Bill’s lines between cannabis, hemp, and the country’s appetite for relief. That’s the uncomfortable truth sliding across the table right now as Congress toys with a federal hemp regulation rewrite while parts of the industry and a chorus of attorneys general shout for bans. Strip the moral panic and you’re left with market reality: a national hemp THC marketplace, born from statutory language that explicitly included “extracts, derivatives, and cannabinoids,” and a vacuum where the FDA should’ve built rules. We’re not arguing ghosts here. We’re arguing how to govern a booming demand—age-gating, testing, labels, real consumer safety—without detonating an entire sector and shoving millions back into the shadows.
What Congress Wrote—And What FDA Didn’t
Steve Bevan, one of the behind-the-scenes architects who worked with then–Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, says the statute’s intent was clear: empower farmers and rural communities to sell hemp-derived cannabinoids across the country. This wasn’t some accidental backdoor; it was the front door. The ask back then was simple and sane—set quality and safety standards, regulate like we test food before we eat it. Instead, the years that followed felt like waiting for a host who never shows. FDA inaction created today’s chaos: uneven product quality, no universal age restrictions, confusing labels, and a patchwork of state rules that punish compliant players and reward the reckless. You don’t fix that with prohibition theater. You fix it with actual rules and a clock to get businesses compliant. If you want to see the argument laid out in black and white, Bevan’s letter to congressional leaders is publicly available and worth a read on its own terms. Read the primary document here.
The Politics Behind the Panic
A letter from 39 state and territory attorneys general calling for a ban sounds righteous—until you clock where many of them come from: places where state-legal marijuana markets already rake in taxes. It’s hard not to see a turf war in the reflection. Hemp-derived cannabinoids compete with dispensary shelves, often at lower prices and with lighter regulatory armor. Banning the competition under the banner of “protecting kids” skips the part where basic age-gating and labeling would do the job without crushing the farmers and small operators who followed federal law. And the public mood? It hasn’t exactly shifted toward handcuffs. The Majority Of Americans Still Back Marijuana Legalization—Despite Big Drop In Republican Support Under Trump, Gallup Poll Shows, and that cultural current doesn’t stop at the state line or the cannabinoid label. New governors are reading it. Voters are living it. The market is feeding it.
Meanwhile, The Booze Lobby Isn’t Sleeping
There’s another player staring at the same pie: alcohol. As THC beverages start siphoning happy-hour dollars from beer and liquor, major industry groups have stepped on the gas in Washington, pushing for at least a temporary ban on intoxicating hemp products until a “robust” federal framework exists. Their math makes sense; their fear is obvious. But public health isn’t better served by pushing consumers back to 80-proof when lower-dose hemp options exist. A smarter federal play is the boring one that works. Build the guardrails. Label the potency. Enforce the age checks. Standardize testing and contamination thresholds. Restrict marketing to minors. Give businesses a real transition period. And study what’s already working in the states before rewriting national rules. It’s not like Congress hasn’t seen this movie with other substances. Even outside cannabis, we’ve watched federal inertia warp markets and stall science—just look at how research has been throttled elsewhere, as documented in Psilocybin Use Has ‘Surged’ But Federal Law Is A ‘Major Barrier’ To Research, Study Published By American Medical Association Says.
Two Roads: Ban It, Or Regulate Like Adults
Congress has a fork in the road and it’s not complicated. One path is prohibition with a new coat of paint, the kind that swells illicit markets, punishes compliant operators, and pretends consumer demand is a misprint. The other path is what grown-up countries do when an industry gets big and messy: regulate it. Set a national age minimum for hemp-derived intoxicants. Require third-party testing and QR-code accessible results. Impose clear potency disclosures and serving-size caps. Harmonize interstate shipping standards. Enforce retailer compliance with real penalties for bad actors, not existential ones for everyone else. Plenty on Capitol Hill get this; they know an outright ban would crater farm incomes and small businesses while boosting unregulated supply. Meanwhile, at the state level, momentum keeps pushing toward normalization—see the signals from newly elected leaders like those in New Jersey’s Incoming Governor Supports Legalizing Marijuana Home Cultivation and Virginia’s Newly Elected Governor Supports Legalizing Recreational Marijuana Sales. Federal hemp policy can either align with that reality or keep tripping over it.
The Late-Night Truth
Walk into any gas station, boutique, or neighborhood shop and you’ll see it: America has already voted with its wallet. People want options—CBD for calm, lower-dose THC for a mood, beverages that replace a second cocktail without the next-morning pound. You can lecture the country about purity or you can build a system that keeps the sketchy stuff off the shelves and gives consumers exactly what the label promises. The 2018 Farm Bill opened a door. The FDA left it unattended. Now Congress has to decide whether to slam it shut and spark another drug war rerun, or install a proper bouncer and velvet rope. If you’re looking for safe, compliant ways to experience this space, start with trusted sources and clear labels—and when you’re ready, explore our curated selection here: https://thcaorder.com/shop/.
