It’s been a whirlwind few months in the hemp business.  When the Federal Government was shut down over a budget impass, none of us thought we had to worry about the legality of our businesses, but the Alcohol Lobby, Anti-Cannabis Politicians, The Pharma Industry, and Legal Cannabis State Lobbyists went to work quietly behind the scenes, and got Mitch McConnell and Andy Harris to add a section to the bill to reopen the government essentially banning the entire hemp industry.

Now why do those players not like the Hemp Industry?  The alcohol producers dislike hemp because they blame THC and CBD beverages, along with Cannabis/Hemp use displacing alcohol consumption, for their declining sales.  Maybe the American Citizen is discovering that Alcohol is not healthy in any amount, and is prioritizing their wellbeing over getting drunk.  Maybe the availability of THC and CBD products to unwind at night leaves them feeling better in the morning that a hangover.  In any case, alcohol sales are down, and the producers want the most advantage they can get.

Beverage Distributors however love Hemp THC and CBD beverages since it gives them something to sell that’s not alcohol, but the producers want the industry shut down.

Anti-Cannabis Politicians think that any legality of Hemp and Cannabis is morally wrong, and they are going to be hard to sway.  Our own representative in our District, Ted Budd, is steadfastly anti hemp and cannabis.  The only way to convince them will be to vote them out, and vote in someone who actually believes in Freedom, not their own conservative morality.

Legal Cannabis States dislike the Hemp Industry because we don’t have to pay the crazy taxes they do, and we aren’t subject to IRS 280e tax problems.  Because the entire legal state Cannabis industry is technically Federally Illegal, they cannot claim any deductions on their taxes, and have major problems banking.  They also are subject to various state taxes that we do not have to pay, so they don’t like Hemp.  I’d love to say, hey, we’re all on the same side here, but they don’t listen.  We are the ‘gas station weed’ to them, even though companies like us that produce a safe, tested product, are often choosen over their own legal state products.

Big Pharma hates Hemp and Cannabis for the obvious reasons; we don’t have a list of side effect including potential suicide and death, and our plants work well for lots of ailments that they’d rather you buy their drugs for.

So these forces came together, and even though we made as much noise as possible, the bill made it through the House and Senate, and President Trump signed it, making it law.

In November 2026, the law takes effect.  These are the parts that will put us, and every other hemp producer out of business.

‘No more than .4mg Total THC per package.’  Just ONE of our lowest strength gummies, our Easy Chills, contains about this amount of THC.  For CBD to work well, it needs some THC, and this part of the law makes CBD much less effective.  We would not even want to produce CBD isolate products, because they do not work well enough for us to stand behind.

The other real stinker is that they are banning any ‘intermediate’ products that contain more than .3% THC.  This makes it impossble to make anything, as up until the final formulation of a product to the consumer form, it will be stronger than what is legal, across the board.  If the final product has .3% THC in it, how would we get that, without the potency being higher on it’s way there?

So the law as it stands ends ours and every other hemp business, and ends your right to buy what you want.

Now wait a minute, didn’t Trump put out an Executive Order asking for the resceduling of Cannabis?  Isn’t that great news?!  Well, not so fast.

When Trump put out his EO, it didn’t actually change anything.  It was just requesting that it be changed.  The Department of Justice has to do it’s thing, and the House and Senate can stop it.  There’s already Republican push back on Rescheduling.  Not only that, rescheduling to Schedule 3 only paves the way for the Pharma Industry to take over THC and CBD, and make it so you can only purchase it at a pharmacy, at their prices.  Imagine how much less effective the plant will be when it’s divided into all it’s parts and sold as pills.

Taking Cannabis OFF the Schedule entirely is the only way to real cannabis freedom, but I do not see that happening with our current governement.

Now what’s in store for NC?  The North Carolina Governor created a Cannabis Council to explore how laws could change in NC.  It’s important to remember that all state level cannabis programs are federally illegal.  The Council has some good ideas, and hopefully they will submit their final ideas in the coming months, but it remains to be seen if there will be any motion in the Legislature to move it forward.

Let’s keeping sharing how Hemp and Cannabis can help with Pain, Anxiety, Insomnia and many other ailments, how it does not have side effects like the weird chemical drugs the Pharma industry pushes and how us, normal people, use it in the every day lives to be well.  It’s going to be a stressful year, good thing I make gummies and drinks to help me chill.