How Government Shutdown Could Impact Wisconsin's Hemp Industry

As Americans watch Congress work toward ending the longest government shutdown in the country's history, a provision in the bill to reopen the government is raising concerns among business owners around the country, including one in Northern Wisconsin.

While the idea of getting federal employees paid and resolving the various impacts of the shutdown has broad appeal, a piece of the bill that would reopen the federal government includes a provision that would, in essence, shut down or severely damage an industry across the country.

In short, that provision of concern to a number of business owners would make hemp-derived THC products like popular seltzer drinks and other consumables, as we know them, a banned category of products.

Wisconsin business owner Craig Sutherland shared his concerns about this provision in a social media post, saying it would "wipe out a big part of the industry overnight" if passed.

Sutherland, who owns Sutherland CBD in Superior, Wisconsin, says the provision would severely impact not only businesses like his but also impact " rural jobs, family farms, and innovation."

In Wisconsin, where recreational marijuana is not legal, adult customers are still able to purchase things like hemp-derived THC beverages, CBD oils, and other hemp-derived consumables because of the federal farm bill passed in 2018.

That bill removed hemp from the list of controlled substances and permits products to be made from hemp plants with a certain low level of THC concentrations.

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Since then, there has been a nationwide boom in the hemp-derived products industry, using what some people call a loophole that addresses the THC levels in hemp-derived products.

The new proposal moving through Congress right now would change how the amount of THC in a product is measured. The new provision would limit something like a THC beverage to 0.4 milligrams per container, which is drastically less than the 5 to 10 milligrams you'd find in many products on the market today.

The passage of this measure would essentially make illegal many of the products available in states like Wisconsin, where recreational marijuana is not legalized. What would be legal would likely not be desirable, as consumers say it would not have any desired effect at the levels proposed.

Even in Minnesota, where recreational cannabis is legal, there are concerns about this bill. As KARE 11 reports, many breweries that make THC beverages and other businesses that sell these products would be significantly impacted.

Right now, many businesses in Minnesota use hemp-derived THC in their products, some of which comes from out of state. This new bill, if passed, would eliminate that out-of-state source of hemp as well as prevent Minnesota-made products that are currently federally legal from being able to be sold in other states.

In addition, Minnesota businesses in this industry would meet additional challenges in finding banks that are willing to offer loans for companies creating or selling a federally illegal type of product.

This provision was passed, along with the rest of the bill to end the government shutdown, by the U.S. Senate on Monday. It now goes to the House of Representatives for a vote. If passed there, it will likely be signed into law by the President, and the new law would go into effect next year.