11/18/2025
It's been a difficult week. I'm sure you've heard that Congress voted to end the government shutdown. What you may not know is that included in the bill was a provision to ban most h**p products. The bill essentially destroys the entire h**p industry. Trump signed the bill into law this past Wednesday.
There is a lot of confusion about what this new law actually means, so I wanted to give you some clarification. What matters most to me: all the products I sell will be illegal next year.
Here are the basic facts:
- The new law criminalizes any product containing more than 0.4mg of THC per container (not per serving). This includes all full spectrum CBD products. Essentially, full spectrum CBD products are being redefined and moved from the category of h**p to the category of ma*****na.
- This means that all of the products I make will be considered Schedule 1 drugs - more illegal than co***ne, fentanyl, and methamphetamine (all Schedule 2 drugs).
- The law does not affect medical or recreational cannabis in legal states. The products sold in those dispensaries are already federally illegal.
-The only place to legally buy full spectrum CBD products will be at dispensaries in legal states.
-The law takes effect in one year.
You can read the legislation for yourself here: https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/agfy26conf.pdf. Scroll to Section 781 to get to the part about h**p.
You may read that this legislation only bans fake or synthetic products sold in gas stations, or that it only bans intoxicating h**p products. It does ban these, but also outlaws tested and regulated h**p-derived THC products, as well as full-spectrum CBD.
This is the news I've been dreading since late last summer. The situation is bleak. Thousands of small businesses will close their doors, an estimated 300,000 people will lose their jobs, and millions of people will lose access to medicine they rely on to manage their medical conditions.
What does this mean for Primal Botanical? If the law stands, I will probably close my business. It's not possible to sell full-spectrum CBD under this law.
The only way I could sell my products legally would be get a license to manufacture recreational cannabis products. Realistically, this option is unlikely to be financially viable. Becoming licensed and complying with all the requirements would be expensive and very time-consuming, and I would only be able to sell my products in a few Vermont dispensaries. My income would plummet. There's no way my business could be sustainable on dispensary sales alone.
The good news: the law doesn't take effect for a year. A lot can happen in a year! There will definitely be a fight, both through legislation and in the courts. States could possibly (hopefully!) create new pathways for low-THC products that are less costly than for intoxicating products.
What can you do? For now, contact your legislators. Let them know that you are unhappy about the h**p ban and why access to h**p products is important to you. You can call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected with your Senator or Representative, or find contact info for your legislators here. I will send out another email when there is a new piece of h**p legislation introduced. Congress needs to know that millions of people care about this ban - please contact them!
