WASHINGTON, D.C. — Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) today condemned draft Senate appropriations text that would extend the implementation of the hemp-derived THC ban until December 11. The law, initially passed in the Senate by a 76-24 vote, was supposed to take effect on November 12.
In a recent Washington Examiner op-ed, SAM President and CEO Dr. Kevin Sabet warned that delaying the ban would keep the same intoxicating THC products linked to child poisonings and fatalities on store shelves for months longer.
The provision, titled “Section 781 Extension,” allows the law to apply only to products containing cannabinoids that cannot be produced by the cannabis plant. Everything else is switched off until December 11. That includes the 0.4 milligram per container cap on finished products, the total-THC standard covering THCA, and the exclusion for cannabinoids manufactured outside the plant, which is the pathway that created the delta-8 industry.
The practical effect is that intoxicating delta-8 gummies, high-dose hemp THC beverages, and THCA flower would remain federally legal and available in gas stations and smoke shops nationwide, while lawmakers claim the ban took effect on schedule.
“This is the first attempt at a full repeal of the ban on hemp-derived THC that the Senate overwhelmingly voted for by a margin of 76-24 last November,” said Dr. Kevin Sabet, president of SAM and a former advisor to three White House administrations. “Now, because of the hemp industry’s influence over the White House, the Senate is trying to jam protections for THC candies and 100-milligram THC drinks into this spending bill. This is a sad moment for families across the country.”
SAM noted that the December 11 date is a government funding deadline, not a policy deadline — a structure that permits the delay to be renewed indefinitely by changing a single date in each successive spending bill.
“Congress already voted on this. The Senate rejected an effort to strip the hemp standard 76 to 24,” Sabet said. “Now a handful of members are trying to undo that result in a place where no one has to cast a vote and no one has to explain themselves to the parents whose kids ended up in emergency rooms. A four-year-old in Virginia died after eating delta-8 gummies. That is what this provision keeps on the shelf.”
“We beat this last year and we will beat it again,” Sabet added. “The answer to a law that is about to work is not to switch it off for a month at a time.”