The DEA outlaws processing legal hemp, threatening the entire U.S. hemp industry

DEA’s New Hemp Rule Threatens the Entire U.S. Hemp Industry

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) just released an Interim FInal Rule that criminalizes "wet hemp," which is created during the process of manufacturing raw hemp into consumer hemp products. The 2018 Farm Bill legalized growing and selling hemp and hemp products, however it failed to legalize the manufacturing of the plant.

The 2018 Farm Bill defines hemp as, "the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant, including the seeds thereof and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salt of isomers, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3% on a dry weight basis."

What the 2018 Farm Bill, and the writers of said bill, fail to understand is that when the hemp derivatives, extracts, and products go through the extraction process, it results in the creation of wet hemp. Wet hemp has a THC concetration greater than 0.3%, meaning the entire industry, and its employees, are handling a Schedule 1 controlled substance.

Since the War on Drugs was declared on non violent, peaceful Americans, we have seen the legal consequences of handling and processing schedule 1 substances, which can vary between government sanctioned extortion (fine), kidnapping under threat of violence (arrest) and being held at an internment camp (prison).

In order to get this issue resolved, the industry must rely on either a bill to wind itself through Congress which ammends the 2018 Farm Bill, or a federal court judgement essentially striking this rule down.