Federal Hemp Ban Pushed By GOP Is A ‘Step Backward,’ Democratic Congresswoman Says (Op-Ed)

Minnesota hemp industry stares down a federal sucker punch. That’s the headline, and the hangover. Five years after the Farm Bill cracked the door, Minnesota didn’t just walk through it. It built a $200 million machine that hums from prairie fields to taproom tanks, stocking shelves and paychecks for thousands. Then, with the blithe swagger of a late-night committee rewrite, Washington floated a one-size-fits-all “fix” that looks a lot like a federal hemp ban on hemp-derived THC beverages and edibles. The move threatens legal cannabis revenue, small-town jobs, and a disciplined, state-built scaffolding of cannabis taxation and compliance. As Rep. Angie Craig put it, “Our governments, farmers and small businesses need more guidance and regulatory certainty—not blanket bans.” It’s hard to argue while watching the Minnesota cannabis market—equal parts grit, ingenuity, and regulatory elbow grease—get treated like a problem child instead of the grown-up it’s tried to be.

The facts aren’t coy. Minnesota’s hemp program is a tidy ledger: 132 licensed growers. Ninety-six processors. More than 2,000 retailers. Most residents don’t use hemp or cannabis regularly, but north of 60 percent support legalization, which tells you something about grown-up tolerance and the value of rules that guardrails, not tripwires. This new federal gambit reportedly landed without ringing the bell for state stakeholders or even the House Agriculture Committee—where Craig sits—underscoring the core failure here: process. If you’re serious about public health, you don’t swing a hammer where a level will do. Minnesota’s track record of smart, measured cannabis regulation backs that up—and so does research that shows tighter guardrails can outperform booze-world norms on harm reduction, a point underscored in Marijuana Regulations Protect Public Health Better Than Alcohol Rules Do, New Government-Funded Study Finds.

There’s a cleaner federal path if anyone’s interested in writing laws that last longer than a news cycle. Start with the farm gate: USDA sets cultivation and processing standards for hemp fiber and grain, and clarifies hot-crop remediation so farmers aren’t ruined by a decimal point. Route ingestibles—hemp-derived THC beverages, CBD supplements, and functional edibles—through FDA for safety, labeling, and dosing. Give FTC the wheel on advertising so “kid-safe” actually means something. And let TTB speak to production controls on intoxicants; they’ve been balancing tax, compliance, and public safety since your granddad’s rye. Pair that with age-gating at 21+, universal testing, track-and-trace, and bans on candy-coated marketing to minors. None of that crushes innovation. If anything, it keeps the good operators standing and the bad actors sweating. Want a template for keeping local upside in local hands? Lawmakers have already floated worker-centered ideas like shared ownership; see Minnesota Should Allow Marijuana Businesses To Offer Employee Stock Ownership Plans, Lawmakers Say (Op-Ed). Keep that spirit and the industry doesn’t just survive—it grows roots.

Zoom out and you see a patchwork begging for seams, not scissors. States are moving—some cautiously, some with swagger. Texas, not exactly synonymous with freewheeling weed, is tuning its medical program with procedural nuts-and-bolts like a standardized path for ailments and devices, the kind of administrative plumbing that prevents chaos while giving patients clarity. That incrementalism is on display in Texas Agency Releases Form To Recommend New Medical Marijuana Qualifying Conditions And Approved Inhalation Devices. And if you think this is only about supply chains and SKUs, remember the human ledger. The prohibition era keeps on echoing in locked cells and fractured resumes. Civil society keeps writing letters to the people we left behind, a reminder that marijuana policy reform is more than market share and margin. One example: Marijuana Advocacy Group Launches Holiday Campaign To Send Letters Of Support To People Still Incarcerated For Cannabis. Sensible regulation and credible mercy are not opposites. They’re the same road, paved properly.

Back in Minnesota, the clock is ticking. Congress gave itself a year to figure out whether it wants a working national framework or another round of whack-a-mole. Here’s your to-do list: bring growers, processors, retailers, brewers, lab nerds, parents, cops, and public health pros to the same table. Acknowledge the obvious: this market exists, it generates legal hemp revenue, and it carries real cannabis industry impact when guided by clear rules and sane taxation. Ignore the obvious and you’ll shove consumers back to the shadows while kneecapping 132 growers, 96 processors, and more than 2,000 Main Street stores who followed the rules Minnesota wrote. This isn’t romantic. It’s adult. It’s work. And it’s worth defending—so if you believe in regulated choice, safe products, and supporting compliant operators, finish here by browsing what’s new and lab-tested at our shop: https://thcaorder.com/shop/.