Hemp Industry in Trouble

NBC's Rory O'Neill reports on the issues facing the business and how long they have to fix it

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's six forty seven. Mike Elliott, Columbus Morning News. Let's
say hello to Roory O'Neil, NBC News Radio on the
Legacy Retirement Group dot com phone line. Rory, I hope
you had a nice weekend. And as the government sort
of lurches to back being back open, one of the
policy changes it was kind of buried inside that bill
to reopen the government was affecting the hemp industry. What

(00:24):
is going on with this?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, there is and now that was part of that
laws signed by President Trump. There is a THCHC cap
that effectively bans most hemp products. Essentially, I think it
limits it to things containing more than point four milligrams
of total thchc per container. To put that in perspective,
single hemp gummy typically has about two point five up

(00:48):
to ten milligrams of thchc. So effectively it bans all
this stuff. And we've seen an explosion in this industry
since twenty eighteen. It's now a thirty billion dollar industry
with three hundred thousand workers across the country.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
So this would be a this is a federal policy,
not a state's policy, because I know in Ohio recreational
marijuana is legal, but there's a lot of crackdown on
some of the infused the drinks and the candies and
some of those things.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well, right, and then important, let's imagine that stuff is
made in California and comes into Ohio. It wouldn't be
allowed to be transported in and all this kind of
stuff has happened. Now, these new rules don't take effect
until next year, and what the hemp industry is saying
is that, you know, give us time, let us try
to undo some of this. This was a really Mitch McConnell,
the former Majority leader now retiring outgoing senator from Kentucky.

(01:41):
He was the guy that put this in there because
in twenty eighteen, it was his hemp bill that you know,
the idea was, oh, we want hemp to make rope
and clothing. But then they use that bill to create
this loophole about THHC. And that's how this industry has
been allowed to grow. So McConnell goes back and gets
this thing closed up, but even divides his own you know,

(02:04):
the senators in Kentucky disagree on this. It's plenty of
been saying that the McConnell closed this a favorite of
the liquor industry in Kentucky. You know, whether or it's
their money that was influential. Who knows, But essentially you
got a year to undo this. Dammit.