A Senate stopgap funding bill would delay the federal prohibition on most hemp-derived THC products until December 11, but Republican senators Ted Budd and Pete Ricketts are trying to block the reprieve. The White House is urging GOP lawmakers to accept the short delay, warning that the dispute could stall the broader spending bill and disrupt the Senate’s August recess.
As we reported last week, the federal ban on hemp-derived THC products that has been looming over the industry might be delayed for a month. Senate leaders released a stopgap funding bill on Sunday that would keep federal agencies running through December 11. Tucked inside the bill was a provision that would delay the planned prohibition on most hemp-derived THC products until that same date.
But this move didn’t go as smoothly as planned. As reported by Marijuana Moment, Republican senators Ted Budd and Pete Ricketts have each argued against delaying the hemp ban. Their argument? Mainly, “save the children.”
On the one hand, Budd considers the public availability of hemp products a “public health crisis,” emphasizing its alleged impact on children, the workforce, and even the military. “I am appalled at the well-oiled, slick lobbying machine […] that has chosen to wage this surreptitious war against our efforts to protect American children,” Senator Budd stated. He also filed an amendment aimed at blocking the delay.
On the Senate floor, Budd displayed posters showing advertisements for THC products whose packaging bore a striking resemblance to that of popular food brands such as Oreos and Skittles, and argued that, because the packaging uses bright colors, the products are “unmistakably designed to appeal to kids.”
“You know this is not some innocent coincidence. You don’t accidentally create packaging for an intoxicating substance that bears a strange resemblance to a recognizable brand,” he said. “You don’t accidentally make an intoxicating product look like something a child would recognize from a grocery store shelf without reasonable intent. This is marketing by design, and it’s designed to evade the law.”
The fact that popular brands also appeal to adults and that bright colors are routinely used in ads aimed at them doesn’t seem to have crossed his mind. Nevertheless, many states have already addressed this issue, explicitly banning cannabis companies from advertising in a way that appeals to children—hemp ban or not.
The aim of the hemp industry, in Budd’s view, is to make children “addicted to these disguised substances.” He also claimed to have met with families of children who have died after becoming addicted to cannabis. Bear in mind: there hasn’t been a single documented case of a fatal overdose caused solely by cannabis. If Senator Budd’s claims are true, that would amount to an unprecedented medical finding—one that should be drawing far more public and scientific attention, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Then there is Senator Ricketts, who has also raised concerns about “high-THC products disguised as candy.” He listed several alleged health consequences of cannabis use as well: “It can reduce [young people’s] IQs, lead to mental health issues such as suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression.”
White House officials and the president himself are currently urging Republican senators to accept a delay to the hemp ban. According to Politico, other senators who had raised similar concerns have been swayed, including Senator Rick Scott, who was reportedly assured that the government is “committed to regulating the industry.”
Still, the issue seems to be a heated point of debate within the GOP. According to Senator Rand Paul, it became a point of contention during Senate Republicans’ private lunch meeting Wednesday. He also shared his opinion that the whole debate is “kind of insane” and that the senators arguing against the delay “aren’t very rational.”
It’s unclear why these senators believe this four-week delay would cause such irreparable damage to society, but they appear to have no intention of backing down.
Furthermore, an anonymous White House official said that the “modest” delay is intended “to allow for productive conversations to continue,” and that some synthetic cannabis products would be permanently banned in the meantime. For now, the dispute threatens to delay passage of the entire funding bill, which could prevent senators from beginning their August recess on time.
Cover photo created with AI.
