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Dec 9, 2025
Hemp crackdown threatens health products, multi-billion dollar industry | Fox 11 Tri Cities Fox 41 Yakima
Hemp crackdown threatens health products, multi-billion dollar industry | Fox 11 Tri Cities Fox 41 Yakima
FOX 11 41 Tri Cities Yakima
A new federal regulation on hemp targeting an unregulated market of intoxicating substances has sweeping impacts into the realm of wellness products and could upend a fast-growing industry.
Tucked within the funding bill which ended the record government shutdown in November, Section 781 bans most hemp-derived THC products by imposing strict limits on THC content (no more than 0.4 milligrams of THC content per container) and outlawing compounds synthesized outside of the hemp plant effective Nov. 12, 2026.
Cracking down on hemp-derived products
When the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp, defining it as any part of the plant with no more than 0.3% concentration of delta-9 THC (marijuana) on a dry weight basis, Congress did not account for several compounds, called cannabinoids, within the plant.
That created what lawmakers have called a loophole that allowed for a boom of production and sale of hemp-derived products: delta-8 THC, THCA, and HHC produce intoxicating effects similar to marijuana without exceeding the 2018 regulation.
"These substances you could buy at a corner grocery store, a small mini mart, a gas station- available to kids, young people," Washington Fourth Congressional District Representative Dan Newhouse said in an interview with NonStop Local. "There's no true regulation... the label could say one thing, and you could get something entirely different."
Delta-8 THC is a naturally occurring cannabinoid in hemp. However, the plant produces the cannabinoid in such trace amounts that the vast majority of products on the market are composed of man-made delta-8 synthesized from CBD through a chemical process.
America's Poison Centers in 2022 managed 3,358 cases of delta-8 THC exposure-an 82% rise from the previous year-and from 2018-2021, the FDA reported 22 deaths where delta-8 was found present. The cannabinoid was the only suspect product in 4 of those deaths.
The FDA has not evaluated or approved delta-8 products for safe use.
"[Delta-8 THC prod
