A bill has that has been reintroduced in the U.S. Senate would move hemp testing from the flower itself to finished products.
Noting the THC content of hemp plants is dependent on environmental factors farmers cannot control, hemp processors are better positioned to control final THC content in products, according to a summary of the bill from the office of its author, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
“Providing a statutory fix to this problem, by testing the final hemp-derived product rather than the hemp flower or plant itself, would ease the burden on farmers,” according to the summary.
Cut bureaucracy
Paul this week re-filed his Hemp Economic Mobilization Plan (HEMP) Act, a version of which was first proposed at the end of the previous legislative session of the U.S. Congress but failed to receive a vote.
“There is still work to do to prevent the federal government from weighing down our farmers with unnecessary bureaucratic micromanaging,” Paul said in re-introducing the bill.
Paul’s bill would also significantly impact the hemp landscape in the USA by raising the allowable level of THC in industrial hemp from 0.3% to 1.0%.
Farmers hampered
The re-introduction of HEMP Act comes after U.S. Department of Agriculture hemp rules took effect March 22. Those rules set a threshold for “negligent” THC violations at 1.0% THC, meaning hemp producers whose crops go over the federal 0.3% limit but do not exceed 1.0% THC will not be considered in violation of the law. However farmers must destroy those crops.
Paul’s proposal would ease up on enforcement and most likely encourage research of hemp varieties that express THC levels between 0.3% and 1.0%. Higher THC levels would be positive for the CBD sector as CBD rises in industrial hemp in proportion to THC.
The HEMP Act would also expand the type of documentation valid for individuals transporting hemp shipments, among other changes.
READ: Hemp Economic Mobilization Plan Act (S. 1005); Bill Summary