Politics
GOP Lawmakers ‘Forced’ Trump Into Signing Hemp Ban, Longtime Ally Roger Stone Says
GOP political operative Roger Stone says President Donald Trump was effectively “forced” by Republican lawmakers to sign a spending bill that included a ban on hemp products containing THC.
Stone—who blasted GOP legislators in a blog post last week over the inclusion of the hemp provisions in an appropriations package Trump signed into law—says he doesn’t fault the president personally.
“My criticism is of the Republicans in Congress,” he said in a response to a Marijuana Moment post about the blog. “They included this in a provision that the president was forced to sign in order to get the government open again.”
“President Trump is the founder of the modern legal hemp industry in America which he signed into law,” Stone, a longtime Trump ally, said.
It is the case that Trump during his first term signed the 2018 Farm Bill, which federally legalized hemp and its derivatives. But he didn’t call for the crop’s legalization as Congress was debating that legislation and didn’t explicitly take credit for creating the industry that policy change created—speaking for about 20 minutes at a signing ceremony for the bill at the time without mentioning the hemp reform.
It’s also the case, though, that a White House spokesperson said prior to the more recent signing of the bill containing the hemp ban that Trump specifically supported the prohibition language, raising questions about Stone’s assessment that he was forced into approving it.
Asked by Marijuana Moment about that seeming disconnect, Stone pointed to a Truth Social post from Trump that promoted the therapeutic benefits of hemp-derived CBD, signaling support for the types of products that could now be jeopardized under the new law.
“I kind of think the video he posted speaks for itself,” Stone said, adding that Trump’s signing of the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized hemp is “among his greatest accomplishments.”
The hemp ban doesn’t take effect for another year, leaving stakeholders somewhat hopeful that they can negotiate a deal to implement regulations addressing consumable cannabinoid products before then. But whether the president will proactively work to promote a regulatory approach instead of blanket prohibition is yet to be seen.
“The president [was] forced to sign this bill does away with the domestic hemp industry, which created thousands of jobs—and I think created some additionally beneficial products for people,” Stone said in an episode of his WABC Radio show “The Roger Stone Zone” on Sunday, but “the House and Senate Republicans passing a bill, which reopened the government, it was the president essentially [being] required to sign” it.
“I found that really, really troubling,” he said.
On the radio show, Stone also quoted parts of his blog post about the overarching issue, which included a call for a regulatory framework for hemp that eliminates synthetic cannabinoids and other “sketchy products” from the market.
Congress has “decided to solve a problem regarding hemp by very sweeping language for an unexpected power grab in a must-pass spending measure,” he said. “Folks, this is not regulation. This is prohibition by the back door.”
Stone isn’t the only one sounding the alarm about the potential ramifications of the hemp provisions that the president signed as part of the spending bill.
For example, the Democratic governor of Kentucky said last week that the hemp industry is an “important” part of the economy that deserves to be regulated at the state level—rather than federally prohibited, as Congress has moved to do.
Meanwhile, a leading veterans organization is warning congressional leaders that the newly approved blanket ban on consumable hemp products could inadvertently “slam the door shut” on critical research.
While many hemp stakeholders say the ban would effectively eradicate the industry–even applying to nonintoxicating CBD products that people use for medical reasons—there’s latent hope that they can strike a compromise deal with lawmakers before the prohibition is implemented this time next year.
Lawmakers such as Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) also say that window could provide an opportunity to advance legislation to create an alternative regulatory model for consumable hemp products.
There were attempts by GOP lawmakers in both chambers to strike the hemp prohibition provision. But the proposed amendments from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) did not make it into the final package.
On the Senate side, Paul was joined by 22 Democrats—and, notably, anti-marijuana Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)—in voting against a motion to table the amendment to prevent the ban, but the majority ultimately quashed it.
Massie tried to revive the push in the House with his own amendment mirroring Paul’s, but the prospects of its adoption were dubious at best, as there was generally consensus within the Republican caucus that the spending bill should advance without further modifications that could have sent it back to the Senate.
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Since 2018, cannabis products have been considered legal hemp if they contain less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis.
The new legislation specifies that, within one year of enactment, the weight will apply to total THC—including delta-8 and other isomers. It will also include “any other cannabinoids that have similar effects (or are marketed to have similar effects) on humans or animals as a tetrahydrocannabinol (as determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services).”
The new definition of legal hemp will additionally ban “any intermediate hemp-derived cannabinoid products which are marketed or sold as a final product or directly to an end consumer for personal or household use” as well as products containing cannabinoids that are synthesized or manufactured outside of the cannabis plant or not capable of being naturally produced by it.
Legal hemp products will be limited to a total of 0.4 milligrams per container of total THC or any other cannabinoids with similar effects.
Within 90 days of the bill’s enactment, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other agencies will need to publish list of “all cannabinoids known to FDA to be capable of being naturally produced by a Cannabis sativa L. plant, as reflected in peer reviewed literature,” “all tetrahydrocannabinol class cannabinoids known to the agency to be naturally occurring in the plant” and “all other known cannabinoids with similar effects to, or marketed to have similar effects to, tetrahyrocannabinol class cannabinoids.”
The language slightly differs from provisions included in legislation that had previously advanced out of the House and Senate Appropriations panels, which would have banned products containing any “quantifiable” amount of THC, to be determined by the HHS secretary and secretary of agriculture.
Meanwhile, advocates are sharply criticizing congressional leaders for advancing the spending bill ahead of Veterans Day that also omits bipartisan provisions allowing U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) doctors to recommend medical cannabis to patients in states where it’s legal—even though the policy was approved by the full Senate and House earlier this year.
Image element courtesy of Gage Skidmore.
