A federal funding bill that ended the nation’s longest government shutdown is drawing sharp criticism from local hemp producers, who say a little-known provision could wipe out most CBD and full-spectrum hemp products within a year and destabilize an industry growers have spent the last decade building.
President Donald Trump signed the government funding package on Wednesday night, reopening federal offices after a 43-day shutdown. Included in the bill is language that narrows the federal definition of hemp by sharply restricting how much THC or THCA can appear in any hemp-derived consumer product and by banning cannabinoids that are “manufactured or synthesized outside the plant.”
During the Senate debate, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell defended the measure as necessary to curb the explosion of lab-made intoxicating hemp products.
“Unfortunately, companies take legal amounts of THC from hemp and turn it into intoxicating substances,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “These companies then market it to children in candy-like packaging and sell it in easily accessible places like gas stations.
He added, “While some may masquerade as advocates for hemp farmers, I’ll continue to work on behalf of Kentucky’s farmers while protecting our children, not only in my state, but in yours as well.”
The law states that any hemp-derived product containing more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC or THCA per container will no longer qualify as legal hemp. a threshold industry experts say is far below what current full-spectrum CBD products contain. The restrictions take effect after a one-year transition period.
Farmers say new limits would end their operations
For small producers like Clay Powell of Experimental Farms in Philpot, the new definition leaves little room for survival.
“If things don’t change, I’ve got 365 days to sell my product, and then I might be done,” Powell said. “Our products are not made to get people high. Everything comes straight from the plant, and it’s all within the guidelines. But they’re trying to crack down on people abusing the system, and all the good players are going to get put out, too.”
Powell grows about 1,200 hemp plants a year and produces soaps, balms, bath bombs, and gummies using full-spectrum extract tested by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.
Just west in Hancock County, longtime hemp grower Paul Glover, owner of Mile Marker 5 Hemp Farm, said the bill would force many early adopters out of business.
“I’m one of the first ones in the program, and I am not a happy camper,” Glover said. “These guys in the gas stations have gone way overboard and way out of bounds, and I don’t blame [the government] for trying to control it, but did they have to ban everything? It’s gonna put me under the table.”
Glover, who began growing hemp in 2015 and said he mentored dozens of new farmers over the years, said many producers invested heavily based on the framework established by the 2014 and 2018 Farm Bills.
“We’ve got people sitting on 100 acres of pure nothing — put out lots and lots of money,” he said. “It’s just unfathomable.”
He said Powell is one example of small, transparent operators who could be unintentionally hurt.
“Clay Powell built a nice little cottage industry,” Glover said. “I’ve helped him as much as I could, because I helped all the farmers I could.”
Glover said his own farm is facing compounding pressures unrelated to the bill, including his wife’s declining health, but the federal changes may leave him no option.
Rand Paul: proposal amounts to “prohibition”
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul sharply criticized the hemp section of the bill during Senate debate, saying lawmakers had swung far beyond what was necessary to address harmful synthetic products.
“The hemp industry, myself and others have come together … and yet instead we are met with legislation that would be prohibition,” Paul said on the Senate floor.
He argued the THC limits are so low that they would erase the crop entirely.
“Every hemp seed in the country will have to be destroyed,” he said. “This is the most thoughtless, ignorant proposal to an industry that I’ve seen in a long, long time.”
State officials assessing impact
Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell said the state is reviewing the measure to understand its reach.
“Under its current makeup, the farmers that have reviewed it believe that this is going to stop, if not all, the majority function of what we’re doing around CBD production and some of the full-spectrum things that are happening,” Shell said.
Shell emphasized the need to curb chemically altered delta-8 and similar products linked to rising emergency room visits among Kentucky children but said the federal bill “may have been a bridge too far.”
University of Kentucky extension agent Clint Hardy said the number of local farmers who still grow hemp is relatively small compared to other crops, but the change would still be meaningful for those involved.
“I don’t think there are many growers left in our immediate area,” Hardy said. “But for the ones who stayed with it, this would definitely have an impact.”
Owensboro Times reached out to Congressman Brett Guthrie for comment. His office did not respond prior to publication.
Looking ahead
Powell said the rule as written would force him either to eliminate the natural THC from his full-spectrum products or close entirely.
“I’d have to water down my product until the THC level is almost zero,” he said. “Why would I do that when people love our product the way it is and depend on it? If this rule stands like it is, they’ll lose it, and so will we.”
