Back in December I wrote about why hemp matters — about the people who walk through our door every day and the shop we built for them, and about a plant that was about to get caught in the crossfire of a spending bill nobody outside Washington was paying attention to. I said we were fighting for the right to choose natural alternatives that actually work for us. I meant it then, and I mean it more now, because the fight didn't end. It just moved.
Here's where it stands.
Last week, the Senate passed a spending bill 90-6 that pushes the federal hemp THC ban from November 12 back to December 11, 2026. A month. Senator Ted Budd from North Carolina tried to strip that delay out and keep the original deadline — his amendment got tabled 61-32. So the industry lives to fight another month, and for once the pressure to delay it actually came from the White House, not against it — reportedly because pulling hemp products off the shelf would also cut off seniors and veterans who've started accessing them through a new Medicare initiative. I never thought I'd be typing a sentence where the administration and I want the same outcome, but here we are.
I want to be honest with you about what this is and isn't. It isn't a win. It's a stay of execution. The bill still has to clear the House when members get back from recess, and the two chambers have to reconcile it, because the House's own version didn't touch hemp at all. And even if December 11 holds, synthetic cannabinoids — the stuff that was never naturally in the plant to begin with — are still getting banned on schedule November 12, delay or no delay. That part I actually agree with. I've never wanted to sell you something a chemist built in a lab. I want to sell you the plant.
Jonathan Miller, who's been leading this fight nationally with the US Hemp Roundtable, put it better than I could: "our work is not done." One month buys us time to push for something permanent. It doesn't buy us the fight.
I've spent a good part of this year in that fight myself, not just behind this counter. I've written to Senator Scott and gotten a real answer back. I've invited him and Congressman Wilson to come see this shop in person — not to be talked at, but to watch how we actually run it: ID checked at the door, every product backed by third-party lab results, nothing sold that I wouldn't hand to my own family. I've sat through the same fight at the State House. I tell you this not to make myself the story, but because I want you to know this works. A letter gets read. A visit gets remembered. Silence gets nothing.
So here's what I'm asking, and it's really one thing: make your voice heard before December 11. That means calling or writing Senator Scott, Senator Graham, and Congressman Wilson if you're in this district, and telling them you want a permanent, regulated framework, not a rolling countdown — age verification, lab testing, and synthetic junk off the shelves, because that's what responsible shops like this one already do. And it means remembering that 2026 is a midterm year — every House seat and a third of the Senate is on the ballot in November — so know where the people asking for your vote actually stand on this before you give it to them. Whether it's a phone call to a staffer or a ballot in November, that's the same right, and it's worth using.
If this plant is part of your routine, your business, or your community, it's worth thirty minutes of yours before December.
We'll keep you posted on where things stand — come talk to us about it whenever you're in.
Wellness products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.