WASHINGTON — For months, hemp farmers in Kentucky and around the country have been sounding the alarm about new hemp regulations led by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
The regulations closed a loophole that allowed the sale of unregulated, intoxicating hemp-derived products nationwide.
“Companies have exploited a loophole in the 2018 legislation by taking legal amounts of THC from hemp and turning it into intoxicating substances,” McConnell said in November.
The provision, which takes effect in November, is meant to root out “bad actors,” McConnell said.
Industrial hemp and CBD will remain legal for industrial applications, such as seed, stock, fiber and grain oil, according to McConnell.
Jonathan Miller is the general counsel of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, a national advocacy organization with offices in Washington and Kentucky.
“The problem is, he did root out bad actors, but he also rooted out good actors,” said Miller. “They took a sledgehammer to where a precision laser was needed.”
Miller is supportive of a new bipartisan bill from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Under the Hemp Safety Enforcement Act, states and tribal governments could get an opt-out of federal rules to take full control of hemp regulation.
States that self-regulate would have to impose a minimum age requirement for purchasing certain hemp-derived products and continue a ban on synthetic products.
The legislation would have an “enormous” impact on hemp farmers, Miller said.
“It would ensure that states like Senator Paul’s and my home state of Kentucky, that have existing regulatory programs for hemp, would be able to continue those, despite the ban on the federal level, and it would authorize state agriculture commissioners to approve of such programs,” said Miller.
The bill also would allow for interstate commerce, so hemp-derived products could move between states that allow and regulate hemp use.
Spectrum News reached out to McConnell’s office for comment.
https://spectrumnews1.com/ky/louisville/news/2026/04/21/rand-paul-bill-hemp
