Broadcasts.com - "Will the Hemp Industry Survive the Miller Amendment?" (Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast)

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Will the Hemp Industry Survive the Miller Amendment?

Published: May 29, 2024, 5:26 p.m.

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On this week\u2019s hemp podcast we discuss a recent amendment to the House draft of the 2024 Farm Bill known as the Miller Amendment, which was introduced by Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill.

The amendment effectively bans all hemp products with any amount of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the naturally occurring chemical compound found in the cannabis plant.

The 2018 Farm Bill defined hemp as any cannabis with less than 0.3% THC.

But because of vague guidance from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Food and Drug Administration, a cottage market has developed for intoxicating products from otherwise legal hemp, such as delta-8.

In March, 21 attorneys general from around the country signed a statement imploring Congress to close this perceived loophole, saying these unregulated, intoxicating products were packaged and marketed to children.

In a statement on her website, Miller said delta-8 products were being sold in packaging that looks like candy.

\u201cWe must stop teenagers and children from being exposed to addictive and harmful drugs,\u201d Miller said.

Miller is from a farming background and represents a rural district in southern Illinois.

Many in the hemp industry think this amendment will have unintended consequences that could shut down the industry and destroy the livelihoods of people who are making legal and safe hemp products.

On the show this week, Lancaster Farming talks to two lawyers serving the hemp industry to hear their perspectives.

Justin Swanson, a cannabis lawyer from Bose McKinney & Evans in Indiana and the president of the Midwest Hemp Council, says the amendment is bad for the overall industry, citing harm to fiber and grain sectors and genetics.

\u201cIn my opinion, it eliminates the genetic seed stock that farmers have built, over the last six years, under the broad definition of the \u201918 Farm Bill,\u201d he said.

Courtney Moran of Agricultural Hemp Solutions is legislative counsel to the National Hemp Association.

Moran believes this amendment will have less of an effect on the fiber and grain sector, but still finds the new language troubling for the overall industry.

Moran doesn\u2019t see it as an \u201cindustry-killing\u201d amendment, as it\u2019s been presented in online headlines.

\u201cI would not uses those words,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is a major shift from the policies and language that we\u2019ve seen in both the 2014 and 2018 Farm Bills,\u201d and if it moves forward it will have major consequences.

But she reminds listeners that this is only the House draft and there are many more procedural hoops the Farm Bill must go through before being signed into law.

Both lawyers suggest that the amendment has Big Marijuana\u2019s fingers all over it.

The legally murky market for delta-8 and other hemp-derived intoxicants is cutting into the marijuana industry\u2019s profits.

Also on this episode, we check in with Morris Beegle, founder of the NoCo hemp Expo in Colorado, who tells us more about the June 5-7 European Industrial Hemp Conference and Expo in the Czech Republic.

Learn More:

Justin Swanson

jswanson@boselaw.com

317-684-5404

The Cannabis Practice Group at Bose McKinney & Evans

https://www.boselaw.com/cannabusiness/

Midwest Hemp Council

https://www.midwesthempcouncil.com/

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Courtney Moran

Campaigns@agriculturalhempsolutions.com

202-656-7023