11/14/2025
CALL TO ACTION - 11/14/2025
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Heather Gann
The Alabama Cannabis Coalition and other groups across the country are “sounding the alarm” over language included in this week’s government funding bill that would ban nearly all h**p-derived consumer products.
“The Alabama Cannabis Coalition will not stand by while Congress threatens farmers, businesses, and the safe access that Alabamians depend on,” ACC leadership said in a recent news release.
“This legislation was inserted into a must-pass bill to reopen the government, and the people deserve transparency—not backdoor prohibition.”
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed a funding bill to reopen the federal government.
Within the package is agricultural appropriations language that outlaws products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container.
This includes Delta-9 THC, THCA, and all cannabinoids considered “intoxicating,” according to the bill’s text.
“This shift would effectively render nearly every h**p plant in the United States non-compliant, eliminating over 95% of legal h**p products currently grown or sold and destabilizing a $24 billion industry,” the release says.
“The bill includes a 365-day moratorium before enforcement, but the intent is clear: this is a federal h**p ban.”
According to the Journal of Cannabis Research, a single h**p gummy typically contains 2.5 to 10 milligrams of THC.
H**p, a derivative of the cannabis plant, was legalized in the 2018 Farm Bill for industrial uses like rope, textiles and seed.
But the law’s broad definition created a loophole in federal rules on THC, experts told CNBC, allowing producers to extract psychoactive cannabinoids from federally legal h**p.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pushed the Farm Bill in 2018 to boost the state’s economy but requested the new restrictions passed Wednesday “at the last minute” to “correct” the bill and “restore the original intent,” Boris Jordan, CEO of cannabis company Curaleaf, told the outlet.
For Alabama, the consequences of the bill are even more severe, according to the ACC.
The recently passed state h**p law, HB445, includes a provision stating that any new federal regulation will supersede state law.
“Because this proposed federal definition is even more restrictive, it would fully eliminate legal access to h**p-derived products for Alabama’s consumers—especially patients and veterans with no access to medical cannabis," the release reads.
HB445, which went into effect July 1, banned smokable h**p and high-potency gummies, two of the industry’s biggest sellers.
The bill placed the h**p-derived products and retailers under regulation by the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, imposing a 10% tax, banning some items, and setting up new requirements for packaging, labeling, and testing, as well as civil and criminal penalties for violations.
Proponents of the local bill and national restrictions have cited safety, particularly for minors, as their primary concern.
“Like any parent, I want to protect our kids from dangerous, unregulated products that are slipping through the cracks,” state Rep. Andy Whitt, R-Harvest previously said.
“Right now, these products go untested and unchecked, and authorities have no real power to stop the harm they are causing. Convenience stores are not pharmacies, and we need to make sure they aren’t treated like one.”
But not all Republicans agree, with many saying the national bill is too sweeping, and poses a great threat to the U.S. economy.
“This is the most thoughtless, ignorant proposal to an industry that I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told CNBC this week.
He called the provision an overreach that is “killing jobs and crushing farmers.”
https://www.al.com/news/2025/11/shutdown-bill-could-ban-nearly-all-thc-products-in-alabama-advocates-warn.html
Despite increased restrictions, the Alabama Cannabis Coalition says it is not backing down.
