HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s chief law enforcement officer is urging congressional leaders to allow an impending overhaul of how the country treats hemp-derived products to go into effect in three months.
Republican Dave Sunday joined more than 30 state attorneys general in a letter arguing the merits of the crackdown, saying it would clarify for police the legal status of certain “intoxicating products” containing THC, a chemical found in cannabis plants that can produce a high. District attorneys across the state say they are scrambling to protect kids and adult consumers from unregulated products like those containing delta-8.
“The new federal definition ensures both uniformity and safety throughout the nation,” the letter read, noting multiple states that have codified the federal changes into their own statutes. “If the redefinition is not maintained, it will almost guarantee that these state efforts at regulation will be thrown into chaos.”
But the ban would encompass more than just intoxicating products, and shutter many of the legitimate hemp businesses that have opened since the 2018 Farm Bill legalized the crop’s cultivation, Pennsylvania advocates warn.
The state Department of Agriculture has licensed 170 hemp growers and 32 processors, roughly half of whom grow and sell specifically to consumable manufacturers who make things like CBD drinks and gummies.
“Livelihoods are going to be destroyed, and people are now going to lose safe consumer access,” Jake Sitler, president of the Pennsylvania Hemp and Cannabis Guild, said.
Hemp is used in a lot of goods, like clothing, biodegradable plastics, paper, biofuel, and animal feed. Industrial hemp fiber and grain typically used in those products are exempted from the new regulation.
But national industry group U.S. Hemp Roundtable predicts about 95% of the hemp consumable marketplace would be eliminated under the new federal statute. That includes hemp-based CBD drinks, gummies, oils, and supplements that include trace amounts of THC, but not enough to be considered intoxicating.
The state industry, advocates say, contributes up to $1.4 billion to the commonwealth’s economy annually.
Hemp and marijuana are the same plant species. Currently, a plant is considered hemp if it contains less than 0.3% delta-9 THC when it's harvested, according to the federal 2018 Farm Bill. If it has more, then it’s legally defined as marijuana, which is not legalized for recreational use in Pennsylvania.
The lack of clarity in the 2018 rules allowed for a wave of intoxicating canned drinks, smokables, gummies, and other consumables to pop up in gas stations and convenience stores. Law enforcement has said these products are available because of a legal loophole, sometimes being sold without any guardrails, and bad actors are marketing them toward children through packaging and branding.
The language adopted by Congress last year amends the definition of hemp to encompass total THC and establishes a 0.4 milligrams total THC limit for containers or goods. In effect, this will make it illegal to sell delta-8 and delta-10 products as of Nov. 12, a major goal of law enforcement.
“Closing these loopholes, and ensuring they stay closed, protects consumers, supports businesses that follow the law, and makes it harder for intoxicating products to end up in the hands of children,” Sunday said in a statement announcing he had signed the letter. He previously voiced his support for the hemp restrictions in a similar letter last year.
But the industry says popular consumer products like CBD gummies and tinctures sold widely as sleep aids that have no intoxicating effect would be banned because of the container standard.
Responding to questions about the threat the regulation poses to hemp growers and non-intoxicant businesses, Sunday told Spotlight PA in a statement, “Protecting children from dangerous products is more important than bottom lines of businesses.”
One of those growers is Tyler Shannon, who has run a hemp farm since he obtained a state license in 2021. He told Spotlight PA that none of the $400,000 in hemp he sells annually from his Adams County farm is sold to a company making intoxicating products. Still, he said the change would upend his life.
“It would completely destroy my business,” Shannon said, emphasizing that he sells his crops for CBD — not high-inducing THC.
Shannon said that when policymakers opened up the hemp industry in 2018, they should have distinguished between the amount of THC legal in the raw hemp plant and the legal amount available in products that contain it.
“They didn't know what they were doing, and now they're clamping down on people for playing by the rules that they made,” Shannon said.
Sitler, who owns a Lancaster-based hemp drink manufacturer called Endo, has been asking federal and state lawmakers to regulate hemp intoxicating products, like his, to help eliminate the bad actors who have tarnished the perception of the market. (Pennsylvania law currently mirrors the current federal statute that created the loophole.)
Those regulations would include publishing product lab tests, requiring products be made with natural hemp instead of synthetic cannabinoids, and an age restriction on the purchasing of products, like that done with alcohol — all of which Sitler’s business voluntarily follows.
“When you take away access, that only gives access to the black market,” Sitler warned. “So the only real long-term answer is regulation.”
Delaying the federal rule from going into effect, Sitler said, would buy more time for policymakers to work out a deal that would not decimate the hemp marketplace.
As of Friday, Aug. 7, the U.S. Senate was considering the delay as part of a federal stopgap funding bill, despite some members calling for the provision to be removed.
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