(NewsNation) — Popular THC-infused drinks and edibles may disappear from store shelves in the next year after Congress passed a ban on nearly all hemp-derived THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, products.
Tucked into the Senate-passed government funding bill was a provision that would recriminalize many of the intoxicating hemp-derived products that were legalized by the 2018 farm bill.
The provision “prevents the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products, including Delta-8, from being sold online, in gas stations, and corner stores, while preserving non-intoxicating CBD and industrial hemp products,” according to a Senate Appropriations Committee summary.
The hemp industry is scrambling to stave off what representatives are saying could be an extinction-level event for an industry expected to be worth an estimated $30 billion by 2030.
The 2018 farm bill legalized the sale of hemp-derived THC products if they contained less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC by dry weight. A product containing THC in quantities beyond that threshold would be considered marijuana. The new language would ban “any intermediate hemp-derived cannabinoid products.”
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., waged a last-minute fight to try to keep the provision out, threatening to drag out the process of debating the underlying bill until he got a vote on an amendment to strip the language.
He got the vote Monday; Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas were the only Republicans who voted in favor.
NewsNation affiliate The Hill contributed to this report.