Marijuana Moment
Congressional researchers are again noting that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has missed a legal deadline to publish a list of known cannabinoids and guidance on hemp product containers as federal laws for the crop and its derivatives are set to change later this year in a way that stakeholders argue will upend the existing market.
The agency’s failure to follow through on what lawmakers directed will make it harder to comply with the law, hemp industry operatives say.
As part of appropriations legislation that President Donald Trump signed last year, many hemp products that were legalized during his first term in office under the 2018 Farm Bill will be prohibited once again starting in November.
The spending also measure included separate provisions directing FDA and other relevant agencies to study the cannabinoid marketplace and develop lists of cannabis components as well as issue guidance on hemp product containers for serving sizes.
Specifically, after the bill was signed, FDA was given 90 days to publish 1) a list of “all cannabinoids known to FDA to be capable of being naturally produced” by cannabis 2) a list of “all tetrahydrocannabinol class cannabinoids known to the agency to be naturally occurring in the plant” and 3) a list of “all other know cannabinoids with similar effects to, or marketed to have similar effects to, tetrahyrocannabinol class cannabinoids.”
Further, the agency was tasked with providing “additional information and specificity about the term ‘container’” with respect to hemp product THC serving sizes on the same 90-day timeline. In the bill, the term is defined as “the innermost wrapping, packaging, or vessel in direct contact with a final hemp-derived cannabinoid product in which the final hemp-derived cannabinoid product is enclosed for retail sale to consumers, such as a jar, bottle, bag, box, packet, can, carton, or cartridge.”
The lists and information was due more than six months ago, on February 10, but FDA did not follow through by the deadline—and still hasn’t published the required information.
Now, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) is noting in an updated report published last week that the law “requires FDA to consult with relevant federal agencies and publish [the guidance] within 90 days of enactment (which, as of August 2026, has not been published).”
Read more
