GOP Senator Attends Hemp Business Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, Vowing To Fight To Stop Looming Federal THC Product Ban

Federal hemp THC ban. That’s the headline, the hangover, the shot you didn’t ask for but got anyway. In Louisville, under fluorescent lights and fresh paint, Sen. Rand Paul cut a ribbon at a new Cornbread Hemp shop and promised to fight a re-criminalization scheme tucked into last month’s spending bill, signed by President Trump, that would flip the lights off on a young, unruly American hemp economy next November. The senator’s pitch was straight bourbon: let states regulate hemp-derived cannabinoids on their own terms and tell Washington to stop breathing down the necks of Kentucky farmers who swapped tobacco rows for legal cannabis. He called hemp legalization a success story—jobs, ancillary businesses, a little dignity in the ledger—and made it clear he’d rather not watch federal rulemakers stamp it out in the name of “order.”

States know their backyard better than D.C.

Paul’s argument is simple: the scary bedtime tales about “all cannabinoids at gas stations” and “marketing to kids” miss the mark, and Kentucky’s rules prove adults-only sales and product standards aren’t a unicorn. His emerging bill would lean into federalism—if a state has a responsible framework, it stands, and it supersedes the ban. No ornate federal maze. Just guardrails to keep products from minors and room for commerce to breathe. That tracks with the lived reality: millions of adults rely on CBD to sleep, unknot nerves, and keep the wolves of chronic pain at bay. Even elite athletes are quietly on board—see the data in CBD Provides Pain Relief, Improves Sleep And Aids Relaxation, Study Involving Olympic Athletes Shows. Regulate like adults, sell to adults, enforce like adults. Everything else is theater.

I joined Cornbread Hemp at their ribbon cutting for their newest facility in Louisville. I am fighting to stop this industry-ending ban and standing up for our farmers. Thank you for having me, @CornbreadHemp.

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 16, 2025

What the ban actually does

Here’s the bone in the throat. The new federal language would redefine legal hemp around “total THC,” scooping up delta-8, other isomers, and any cannabinoid with similar effects—or marketed that way. It caps “total THC” and THC-like compounds at 0.4 milligrams per container. Not per serving. Per container. That’s a thimble-sized ceiling that even many non-intoxicating CBD tinctures can’t limbo under. On top of that, anything synthesized outside the plant’s natural pathways could be dead on arrival. FDA and friends get 90 days to publish the roster of what’s “naturally produced” by Cannabis sativa L. If that sounds like federal agencies building a new encyclopedia in a hurry, it is. Industry voices say the definition doesn’t just aim at buzz-chasing gummies—it clips through the CBD aisle and could even complicate non-edible uses when language gets sloppy. Paul called that idiocy. He’s not far off: this is like sending a health inspector into a family diner and condemning the building because the salt shaker looks suspicious.

The political crossfire

Paul’s plan is to slip past the barricades with a states-first fix, because asking senators to undo something they just voted for is like asking a chef to send back his own special. Across the aisle, Oregon’s Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley floated a federal framework that also lets states set their own rules, but with more prescriptive knobs and levers—less libertarian, more IKEA manual. Meanwhile, prohibitionists keep pounding the “protect the children” drum as if every corner store is a rave. In the court of public opinion, that refrain rhymes with other culture-war refrains: see Marijuana Isn’t ‘Chill’ And Is Actually More Dangerous Than Alcohol, Anti-Legalization Groups Tell Supreme Court In Brief For Gun Rights Case. And in the GOP caucus, there’s a faction that treats cannabis like a loaded word and a political cudgel; the tone shows up in headlines like Trump Would Be ‘Wrong’ To Reschedule ‘Gateway Drug’ Marijuana, GOP Congressman Says As Reform Rumors Spread. All of that paranoia bleeds into policy, one amendment at a time. It’s not just cannabis, either. Even an unrelated “protect kids online” bill could snarl legal operators in new compliance webs—see Bill Advancing In Congress To Protect Kids Online Could Create Complications For Marijuana Businesses In Legal States. The cumulative effect? A patchwork trap where the compliant get punished and the reckless go dark or go home.

The year ahead

There’s a countdown clock now. Roughly a year to persuade Congress to replace a sledgehammer with a scalpel. Expect a hard pivot to state capitols: if Paul’s approach wins traction, states with sensible hemp rules become lifeboats while others scramble to write them. Expect reformulation sprints, lot numbers rewritten, container sizes shrunk, and “total THC” assays stapled to every shipment. Expect adult-use marijuana states to eye hemp-channel competition and lobby for bright lines; expect FDA to wrestle science into policy at warp speed. But also expect consumers—veterans, parents, insomniacs, athletes—to keep demanding access to products that work for them, without being treated like suspects at the register. The smart plays now are compliance, transparency, and relentless education, because the best argument for sane cannabis policy remains the lived-in truth of responsible adult use. If you’re curious where craft and compliance meet, take a look at our shop and see what quality looks like when it’s built to last: https://thcaorder.com/shop/