The 2018 Farm Bills Expires on September 30. What’s Next?

The U.S. Government passed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, better known as the Farm Bill, in December of 2018. This is the law that legalized hemp cultivation and products that we all operate under.

The 2018 Farm Bill expires on September 30, 2023. What is the new Farm Bill going to do with hemp?

The current Farm Bill define hemp as Cannabis sativa L. – any part of that plant, including the seeds thereof and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers with no more than a 0.3 percent concentration of Delta-9 THC.

This is why we can sell Delta 8, Delta 10, and Delta 9 THCa with no limits on potency.

If you’ve read the news about Delta 8 over the years, you’ve seen state’s try to ban it, some successfully. Most Delta 8 bans, however, fail when challenged in court. Ironically, the state’s that have banned Delta 8 have done so at the marijuana companies’ behest. Hypocrites.

No one knows what the new Farm Bill is going to do with hemp cultivation and hemp products. Here are the rumors that I’ve heard.

Option #1: Congress is going to raise the Delta 9 THC limit to 1%.

This would be awesome. It would mostly help hemp growers. Currently, if a hemp plant goes above the .3% D9 THC threshold, it ‘magically’ becomes illegal marijuana and must be destroyed. This means tremendous waste and financial loss for hemp cultivators.

Changing the D9 THC limit to 1% would give the hemp growers a lot more ‘breathing room’ to let the plants grow without having to destroy an entire crop because of an arbitrary number ‘made up’ by people that have ZERO background in botany. The cannabis plant does not produce D9-THC. It produces D9-THCa. THCa converts to THC due to heat – the sun is hot.

Option #2: The new Farm Bill will change the THC limit to 1% but change the definition to include ALL THCs.

This means that hemp plants and products can have up to 1% TOTAL THC. This would include D8, D9, D10, THCa, etc.

This isn’t devastating, but it’s very shitty.

The first product to become illegal would be THCa flowers. These products are under .3% D9 THC, but are well over 20% total THC by weight. This would be a gift to the black market drug dealers because they would get their untaxed monopoly on cannabis flowers back. Tell the cities and states to say “Goodbye” to millions in tax revenues.

Another product that would become illegal if the Farm Bill changes the language from 1% D9 THC to 1% Total THC would be all vapes. Delta 8 vapes are over 80% THC, so adios vapes and the municipal tax dollars they create.

Here are the products that would be safe if the law changes to 1% total THC:

Gummies.

Gummies would stay legal because most are already under 1% total THC. If a gummy is over that threshold, we can make the gummies heavier so that the percentage changes.

That’s what’s cool about percentages – we can manipulate them by changing our inputs.

Tinctures.

Tinctures are the same as gummies. We can manipulate the percentage by changing the volume or concentration.

Option #3: The hemp language and definition stays the same.

Albeit unlikely, this outcome would be perfectly okay with us at Better Than Nine.

Conclusion:

Option 1 would be the best for everyone who cares about legal access to safe, high quality hemp products. The only people against option #1 are illegal drug dealers, for-profit drug warriors, Big Pharma, and greedy, monopolistic marijuana companies.

Option 2 would suck to a point. We’d have to stop selling some products, change some labels, and adjust formulas to keep our products compliant.

Personally, Better Than Nine would be fine with option #3 – no change. It would be business as usual for us with no interruption of products or services we offer.

I really have no idea what congress is going to do about hemp in the Farm Bill. Clearly, I’m hoping for Option #1 or #3.

Option #2 would cause damage for millions of people in a myriad of ways – medically, legally, economically, and employmently.

I know shitty option #2 has a lot of powerful, dickhead supporters. As much as our corrupt politicians scream about “How do we stop the fentanyl overdose crisis?”, none of them ever stop and think about what caused the fentanyl overdose crisis that is destroying American youth.

Government bans on safer, natural drugs created the fentanyl epidemic. Think about it. How many fentanyl overdoses did you hear about 15 years ago? None.

You know why? Because the only place to get fentanyl was in an operating room with an anesthesiologist.

China wasn’t mass producing fentanyl and sending it to the Mexican cartels to poison the entire drug supply.

15 years ago, people could get ‘safe’ oxycodone and alprazolam pills from the doctor that weren’t fake ones that would kill an innocent person.

Option #2 will push a lot of cannabis products back into the black market and put healthy, law-abiding, tax-paying Americans in danger or getting a fentanyl laced product that will kill them. This would be the real crime.

Here’s a conspiracy theory we can think about:

Maybe the U.S. Government knows that they have created the overdose crisis. Maybe their plan to end the war on drugs to kill all the drug users with fentanyl poisoning.

I don’t think that’s the case because there are way too many agencies that get tons of free tax dollars to fight the war on drugs. If it ended, the Drug Warriors would have to get real jobs and work for their money like the rest of us.

Sorry about that ranting tangent. I may have just inspired my next blog post!

I’ll keep yall updated on Farm Bill info as I get it.

Thanks for reading!

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