Why Is the Federal Government Banning THC in Hemp Products?

The 2018 Farm Bill Opened the Door for Legal Hemp and CBD

To understand why the federal government is now moving to dramatically restrict THC in hemp products, it helps to go back to where today's hemp industry began: the 2018 Farm Bill.

Before 2018, hemp was treated much like marijuana under federal controlled-substance law.

That changed when Congress passed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, commonly known as the 2018 Farm Bill.

The law removed hemp from the federal definition of marijuana and established a simple dividing line: cannabis and its derivatives could qualify as hemp if they contained no more than 0.3% delta-9 THC on a dry-weight basis.

But what does 0.3% THC on a dry-weight basis actually mean?

For hemp growers, the THC limit applied to the plant itself. Under the federal hemp production rules that followed the Farm Bill, samples are collected before harvest to determine whether a crop complies with the federal THC limit. Sampling focuses on the flowering tops of the plant, where cannabinoids such as CBD and THC are concentrated.

"Dry weight" means the plant's moisture is excluded from the calculation. In simple terms, the laboratory determines how much THC is present relative to the weight of the dried plant material. This prevents differences in water content from changing whether a crop qualifies as legal hemp.

There is one additional technical detail. Although the 2018 Farm Bill defined hemp using a 0.3% delta-9 THC standard, federal crop-compliance testing measures the plant's total potential delta-9 THC, taking into account both delta-9 THC and the amount of THCA that can convert into delta-9 THC.

The relationship between CBD and THC in hemp flower is also important. CBD-dominant hemp naturally produces some THC along with CBD. Depending on the genetics and maturity of the plant, CBD-dominant hemp commonly produces CBD and THC in a range of roughly 20-to-1 to 30-to-1. A ratio of approximately 25-to-1 is a useful general example.

That relationship created a challenge for hemp farmers. As a CBD hemp plant matured and produced more CBD, its THC level generally increased as well. A crop grown to maximize CBD could therefore exceed the federal THC limit and no longer qualify as legal hemp.

The original concept was straightforward: farmers could legally grow cannabis plants bred to be high in CBD and extremely low in THC, provided the crop remained within the federal THC limit.

Importantly, Congress didn't limit its definition to the hemp plant itself. The law included hemp-derived extracts, cannabinoids, derivatives and isomers.

That change created the legal foundation for a national hemp and CBD industry.

Companies could produce CBD extracts and products containing the naturally occurring compounds found in hemp. That included CBD isolate and what the industry came to call broad spectrum and full spectrum CBD products.

Full spectrum CBD could retain naturally occurring trace amounts of THC, provided it remained within the federal definition of hemp. Broad-spectrum products could provide CBD and other hemp cannabinoids while removing THC.

For the first several years, this was largely what Americans associated with hemp and CBD: non-intoxicating products, not products designed to get someone high.

But the wording of the 2018 Farm Bill contained loopholes that would eventually transform the hemp industry.

The First Loophole: CBD Could Be Converted Into Intoxicating Cannabinoids

Hemp naturally produces large quantities of CBD.

As extraction and processing technology advanced, manufacturers learned that this abundant supply of hemp-derived CBD could also be used as a raw material to manufacture other cannabinoids.

One of the first to receive widespread attention was delta-8 THC.

Delta-8 occurs naturally in cannabis only in very small amounts. But manufacturers learned to chemically convert hemp-derived CBD into concentrated delta-8 THC.

Delta-8 is intoxicating. It can get consumers high.

Yet because the 2018 Farm Bill's definition focused on a 0.3% limit for delta-9 THC, manufacturers argued that products containing substantial amounts of delta-8 THC could still qualify as federally legal hemp.

Delta-8 was not the end of it.

The marketplace expanded to include delta-10 THC and other intoxicating or psychoactive cannabinoids and cannabinoid formulations, some produced through chemical conversion or other manufacturing processes.

But chemically converted cannabinoids were only part of what happened.

An even bigger opportunity was hiding in the Farm Bill's treatment of delta-9 THC itself.

The Bigger Loophole: Hemp-Derived Delta-9 THC

Delta-9 THC is the primary intoxicating compound traditionally associated with marijuana.

At first glance, it might seem that the Farm Bill's 0.3% delta-9 THC limit would prevent hemp companies from selling intoxicating amounts of delta-9 THC.

It didn't.

The reason was the way Congress wrote the limit.

The law didn't say that a finished product could contain only a certain number of milligrams of THC.

It said delta-9 THC could not exceed 0.3% of the product's dry weight.

Those are very different things.

Processors could derive and concentrate delta-9 THC from legally grown hemp, and manufacturers could then formulate that hemp-derived THC into sufficiently heavy finished products such as gummies.

As long as companies could formulate the product so that its delta-9 THC concentration remained within the 0.3%-by-weight definition, they argued that the finished product still qualified as federally legal hemp.

That opened an enormous new market.

Companies began selling hemp-derived delta-9 gummies containing 5mg, 10mg, 20mg or more of THC per serving.

These weren't simply trace amounts of THC naturally remaining in a full spectrum CBD product.

They were products deliberately formulated with enough delta-9 THC to produce intoxication.

Then THC Beverages Took Off

The same loophole was particularly significant for beverages.

A beverage can weigh hundreds of grams. Under a percentage-by-weight standard, that creates considerable room for milligrams of THC while the THC still represents less than 0.3% of the product's weight.

Companies began selling hemp-derived delta-9 THC beverages containing intoxicating servings of THC.

The category expanded rapidly.

THC-infused seltzers, sodas, sparkling waters, cocktails and other beverages began moving beyond traditional cannabis dispensaries and into conventional retail channels.

This was an extraordinary change from what most people envisioned when hemp was legalized in 2018.

Hemp was no longer associated primarily with CBD supplements and other non-intoxicating products. A significant new industry had developed around using hemp as the source of THC for intoxicating gummies and beverages.

And those products could be sold in some states where recreational marijuana remained illegal.

Intoxicating THC Moved Outside the Dispensary System

That created one of the biggest concerns for lawmakers and regulators.

State-regulated marijuana dispensaries commonly operate under rules governing age, licensing, testing, labeling, packaging, potency and where products can be sold.

The intoxicating hemp market developed differently.

Delta-9 THC gummies and beverages, along with delta-8 and other intoxicating cannabinoid products, began appearing online and in smoke shops, convenience stores, gas stations and other conventional retailers.

Because regulations varied by state, there was no single nationwide system governing minimum purchasing age, potency, testing and packaging for these products.

The result was a remarkable regulatory contradiction.

A state could prohibit recreational marijuana while consumers might still be able to purchase intoxicating hemp-derived delta-9 THC gummies or beverages through ordinary retail channels.

Gummies Created a Particular Problem for Children

As the market expanded, gummies and other edibles created another serious concern.

THC began appearing in products that looked and tasted like ordinary candy.

Some products used colorful packaging, familiar designs or even branding resembling well-known candies, cereals and snacks.

The FDA identified THC products packaged to resemble products such as Sour Patch Kids, Nerds, Skittles, Starburst and popular children's candies.

To a small child, there may be no obvious difference between an ordinary gummy or candy and one containing enough THC to cause significant intoxication.

And children began getting into them.

Children Began Going to Emergency Rooms and Hospitals

The numbers eventually became impossible for policymakers to ignore.

Between January 2021 and May 2022, U.S. poison control centers received 10,448 reports involving single-substance exposures to edible THC products.

According to the FDA:

• 77% involved people age 19 or younger.

• 65% were unintentional exposures.

• Of those unintentional exposures, 91% involved pediatric patients.

• 79% of the total cases required evaluation at a healthcare facility.

• Of the cases requiring healthcare-facility evaluation, 7% resulted in admission to a critical-care unit.

The FDA also reported adverse events including hallucinations, increased heart rate and vomiting, with some individuals requiring medical intervention or hospital admission.

The concern was no longer theoretical.

Potency Continued to Increase

There was another problem: no uniform federal limit governed how many milligrams of intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids could be placed into an individual gummy or package.

Products became increasingly potent.

Some intoxicating hemp gummies were marketed with extraordinarily high amounts of THC or THC-like cannabinoids in a single serving, with other products containing hundreds of milligrams per package.

This was a long way from the hemp products consumers were buying when the CBD industry began.

The distinction is important.

A traditional full spectrum CBD product might contain a small, naturally occurring amount of THC as one component of a product intended primarily to deliver CBD.

The new intoxicating hemp market was doing something fundamentally different: concentrating or formulating THC and other intoxicating cannabinoids specifically to produce psychoactive effects.

Testing, Manufacturing and Labeling Raised Additional Concerns

Chemically converted cannabinoids created additional manufacturing concerns.

The FDA has warned that some processes used to convert CBD into cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC may involve potentially unsafe chemicals and may create unwanted byproducts or contaminants if manufacturing is not carefully controlled.

Meanwhile, the intoxicating hemp category was governed by a patchwork of state requirements rather than one consistent national regulatory system.

Depending on where a product was sold, requirements for laboratory testing, manufacturing, potency, packaging, labeling and minimum purchasing age could vary considerably.

Hemp Had Become Something Congress Never Envisioned

By this point, the American hemp industry looked very different from the one that emerged after the 2018 Farm Bill.

Hemp was still being used to produce CBD oils, softgels, gummies, topicals and other non-intoxicating products.

But a large intoxicating hemp marketplace had developed alongside it.

Hemp-derived delta-9 THC was being concentrated and formulated into gummies and beverages.

CBD was being converted into delta-8 and other intoxicating cannabinoids.

High-potency products were being sold online and through conventional retailers.

And products capable of producing significant intoxication were being marketed under the same federal definition of "hemp" that covered non-intoxicating CBD.

For lawmakers, regulators and state officials, the distinction between hemp and marijuana had become increasingly difficult to reconcile.

States Asked Congress to Address the Problem

States began responding individually.

Some restricted or prohibited intoxicating hemp products. Others established age requirements, testing rules or potency limits.

But that created a patchwork of regulations across the country.

In October 2025, a bipartisan coalition of 39 state and territory attorneys general called on Congress to clarify the federal definition of hemp.

Their concern reflected what had happened since 2018: a law intended to legalize hemp had also provided a pathway for an enormous new category of intoxicating consumer products.

Congress Decided to Close the Loopholes

One of the people making that argument was Senator Mitch McConnell, who had played a central role in legalizing hemp in 2018.

Years later, McConnell argued that companies had exploited a loophole in the Farm Bill to manufacture and sell intoxicating hemp-derived THC products, including products available at gas stations and convenience stores.

Congress ultimately responded by rewriting the federal definition of hemp.

The new law doesn't focus only on delta-8.

It changes the definition from one focused on delta-9 THC to total tetrahydrocannabinols, including THCA, and it excludes certain cannabinoids that are synthesized or manufactured outside the cannabis plant.

For finished hemp-derived cannabinoid products, the law also establishes a dramatically lower threshold. A product containing more than 0.4 mg per container, combined, of total tetrahydrocannabinols and certain other cannabinoids with similar effects would no longer qualify as hemp under the new federal definition.

Unless Congress changes the law before then, these restrictions take effect December 11, 2026.

But Has Congress Gone Too Far?

This is where the current debate becomes more complicated.

The problems that brought Congress to this point are real.

Children should not be able to purchase intoxicating THC products.

Products designed to look like children's candy should not contain THC.

Extremely high-potency intoxicating gummies raise legitimate safety concerns.

Consumers deserve accurate labels, independent laboratory testing and appropriate manufacturing standards.

And there is a legitimate policy question about whether products intended specifically to produce intoxication should have been able to use the federal hemp definition to operate outside the safeguards applied to other intoxicating products.

But the law Congress passed doesn't simply eliminate high-potency gummies, THC beverages and chemically converted intoxicating cannabinoids.

The 0.4 mg-per-container standard is so restrictive that many traditional, non-intoxicating full spectrum CBD products containing only trace amounts of naturally occurring THC would also exceed the new threshold.

That is why many hemp companies and some lawmakers are asking Congress to reconsider the approach before December 11.

Proposals have included establishing a minimum purchasing age of 21, setting THC limits per serving and package, prohibiting products designed to appeal to children, requiring child-resistant packaging, mandating independent laboratory testing and establishing consistent manufacturing and labeling standards.

In other words: regulate intoxicating hemp without eliminating legitimate, non-intoxicating hemp products along with it.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Unless Congress modifies the law or extends the deadline, the new federal hemp restrictions will take effect on December 11, 2026.

Joy Organics is therefore preparing to stop selling and shipping products containing THC before the new law takes effect.

To allow time for orders to be processed and shipped before the deadline, December 9 will be the final day Joy Organics accepts orders for products containing THC, unless Congress modifies the law or extends the deadline before then.

Customers who want to purchase any of our remaining THC products therefore have a limited amount of time to do so.

Through December 9, while supplies last, customers can use coupon code THCBAN30 to save 30% on THC products.

Shop Joy Organics THC Products

All THC products are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Several products have already sold out.

For Joy Organics, THC-Free Isn't New

While the federal law represents a major change for the hemp industry, THC-free CBD is where Joy Organics began.

When Joy Organics was founded in 2018, we started as a THC-free CBD company. As the industry evolved, we eventually added a limited selection of full-spectrum and hemp-derived THC products, but THC-free CBD has always remained at the heart of our business.

Today, Joy Organics offers the largest selection of THC-free CBD products in the industry, along with the largest selection of USDA-certified organic CBD products in the industry.

That means our customers will continue to have a wide selection of CBD tinctures, gummies, softgels, topicals and other products after the new federal law takes effect.

For customers who currently use products containing THC, we encourage you to explore our THC-free alternatives as we approach December 11. To make the transition easier, we've created a guide showing the THC-free alternatives for each of our products containing THC.

View Our Guide to THC-Free Alternatives

And between now and then, we will continue watching Washington closely.

If Congress modifies the new hemp law or extends the December 11 deadline, we will update our customers as soon as we know more. Until that happens, Joy Organics is preparing for the law as currently written, and December 9 will be our final day to accept orders for products containing THC.