Colorado hemp producers and sellers stunned by new federal limits on THC products

Hemp producers and sellers in Colorado and around the country are stunned by a provision included in the bill to reopen the government that puts strict limits on the amount of THC in hemp-based products.

Set to go into effect in another year, the federal government will ban hemp or CBD products with a THC content of greater than 0.4 milligrams.

Colorado already has limits on THC, passed in 2022, but many states do not, including many that do not have legalized marijuana.

"You could go to a place like Wisconsin and buy products that have 10 or 20 milligrams of THC on their liquor store shelves or in a grocery store," said

Shannon Donnelly, an adjunct professor of cannabis at the MSU Denver School of Hospitality.

It was legal because of a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill that put limits on the THC content of the hemp plant, but allowed for higher concentrations of THC in products.

"Unfortunately, companies have exploited a loophole in the 2018 legislation by taking legal amounts of THC from hemp and turning it into intoxicating substances and then marketing it to children," said Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as the Senate debated removing the language from the bill this week.

"We knew the 2018 farm bill was going to be revisited eventually in 2026," said Haylee Jordan, co-founder and head of brand for the hemp-based beverage maker Fabric of Denver, but there is shock at how it was passed.

"It's definitely scary, and everyone is pretty shocked in the beverage industry," she explained. "People in hemp beverage, but also farmers, people in marketing, all sorts of people, you know, their jobs are tied up into this."

Colorado enacted a law as the marijuana industry was being affected by more and more hemp-based products, in which the content of THC was rising.

"We aren't against regulation. Right now, our package design and everything about Fabric is 100% compliant with Colorado," said Jordan. "I think there are some bad actors, for example, a THC brand that looks like it's marketed to children. So we are 100% for regulation and to make sure everything is right and, of course, not marketing to children. And we see the liquor store as the perfect place for that," she said. The company sells in liquor stores and online. They have an alternative product without THC that Jordan says is a fallback for them to keep going if there is regulatory trouble.

The new federal law will set limits that will mean pulling their product, because it has a higher THC content than would be allowed.

"It feels like we have an almost $28 billion industry that we're just going to say it should no longer exists. But I also see it as a larger play of the federal government trying to decide what happens with cannabis as a whole," said Donnelly.

Some of the states with the largest amount of hemp acreage are red states, like Texas, Oklahoma, and Sen. McConnell's Kentucky.

"This is the next step in the federal government saying What are we going to do with cannabis as a whole? Because they have to start making these changes," Donnelly added.  She feels there's more debate coming to form laws that allow for hemp production.

"I think we might see a loss in revenue, a loss in access points, but also some more clarity on what products should be sold in regulated dispensaries compared to in the hemp market."