Convenience stores and other retailers can continue selling products containing intoxicating, hemp-derived cannabis—at least for now.
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday agreed to remove language from an agriculture funding bill that would have effectively banned the sale of all intoxicating hemp products, such as beverages and edibles, according to reporting by Politico.
Currently, the sale of such products is allowed, at least at the federal level, by a loophole in the 2018 farm bill that legalized the sale of hemp-derived cannabis products containing less than 0.3% THC. States, however, can and do make their own laws regarding the sale of these products.
It was Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) who unintentionally introduced that loophole in the 2018 farm bill, essentially creating a new cannabis industry, one not taxed or regulated like marijuana. During a recent Senate committee meeting, McConnell called it “an unintended consequence that has allowed for intoxicating hemp-derived synthetic products to be made and sold,” according to the Congressional Record.
That loophole has since exploded into a booming business, with low-dose beverages and edibles sold at c-stores, smoke shops, via direct-to-consumer channels and more.
Earlier this month, though, McConnell pushed to close that loophole and stop “the proliferation of unregulated intoxicating hemp products being sold across the country,” according to Politico and the text of the FY 2026 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
But McConnell’s fellow Kentucky senator, Rand Paul (R), said he would block passage of the funding bill if the hemp ban was included, saying it would “destroy” his state’s hemp industry.
The hemp ban provisions, however, remain in the House version of the agriculture funding bill.
Convenience retailers looking to sell products containing hemp-derived THC would be well served to reach out to their state and federal legislators, said Melissa Vonder Haar, chair of CSP’s C-Store Cannabis Board.
“Up until this very week, the federal Appropriations Bill included language that would eliminate the entire hemp THC market nationwide,” Vonder Haar said. “But the fight isn’t over: No ban does not mean federal regulations will allow convenience to sell hemp THC. Meaning, it’s more important than ever for convenience to engage.”
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