11/25/2025
Policy, Not Medicine
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette November 25, 2025
Buried in the Fiscal 2026 agriculture appropriations package is a major change to federal h**p policy. Although promoted as a crackdown on intoxicating products like Delta-8, the new rules would effectively outlaw most non-intoxicating full-spectrum CBD products that patients depend on for relief.
As a physician who regularly treats patients with cannabinoid-based medicine, I’m deeply concerned about the consequences.
The 2018 Farm Bill allowed h**p products containing less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC, which made full-spectrum CBD extracts, containing naturally occurring trace THC, legal and widely accessible. The new law replaces that definition with a “total THC” standard and adds an extraordinarily strict limit: no more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container. A typical bottle of full-spectrum CBD oil contains 25–100 mg of THC, still non-intoxicating when used as directed, but now far above the new threshold.
This change would eliminate an estimated 90 to 95 percent of today’s h**p-derived CBD products, including oils, topicals, capsules, and tinctures used by patients with chronic pain, anxiety, sleep disorders, inflammatory diseases, and neurological conditions.
The problem is simple: Full-spectrum CBD works differently. Unlike CBD isolate, which has a narrow “sweet spot” of effectiveness, full-spectrum products provide more consistent relief at lower doses because of the natural synergy between multiple cannabinoids and terpenes. Patients forced to switch to isolate-based products often experience reduced benefit, higher cost, and far more difficulty in dosing.
These rules are a policy choice, not a medical one. Unless Congress revises the law before it takes effect in November 2026, millions of patients may lose access to safe, non-intoxicating treatments that improve their quality of life.
Lawmakers should target truly risky h**p products, not the therapies patients rely on.
BRIAN NICHOL, MD North Little Rock, Arkansas
