Trump Regime To Make Some Hemp Products Illegal

On 1 October 2025, the United States government under the Trump regime entered a 43-day shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, because Congress did not pass a budget for the new fiscal year. On 10 November, the Senate approved an appropriations package to fund critical expenses such as SNAP and veterans’ affairs, and the House of Representatives voted 222-209 to pass the bill two days later, reopening the government as Trump signed off on this resolution. 

Unfortunately, discreetly hidden within the text of this legislation is a provision to federally ban the majority of consumable hemp products currently on the market, set to go into effect one year from the date of signing, despite the fact that a provision of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, which President Trump signed into law during his first term in office, removed cannabis with less than 0.3% THC from the list of Schedule I controlled substances and designated it as an ordinary agricultural commodity. 

Libertarian Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) did his best to block the stipulation to criminalize cannabis, along with some Republican lawmakers in both chambers of Congress. Even Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who has gone on record taking a stand against legalizing cannabis, voted against a federal ban, stating, "I have long believed that the regulation of hemp and marijuana products should rest with each individual state. Reasonable minds can disagree, and a blanket federal prohibition disempowers the voters in each of the fifty States.”

Nonetheless, the majority of Republicans voted in favor of the ban. In particular, Congressman Andy Harris (R-MD) released a statement in favor thereof with a focus on “closing the hemp loophole that has resulted in the proliferation of unregulated intoxicating hemp products, including Delta-8 and hemp flower, being sold online and in gas stations across the country.” Harris also expressed concerns about these products being made available to children. 

Despite Harris’s concerns, the cannabis industry has contributed $115.2 billion to the U.S. economy in 2024 alone, accounting for direct sales and resulting increases in tourism and demand for real estate, construction and legal services. With that in mind, a federal ban on cannabis could stifle that economic lifeline and further waste money by incarcerating people for non-violent drug offenses to the tune of approximately $10 billion annually.

Cannabis proponents also argue that the legislation will also apply to non-intoxicating cannabidiol, also known as CBD, which is often used to treat chronic pain, anxiety, post-traumatic stress and epilepsy, and has far fewer harmful side effects than the usual opioids and benzodiazepines prescribed for such cases.

Given the Trump regime's history of supporting for-profit prisons, a federal ban on consumable cannabis products would give private corrections companies like LaSalle, CoreCivic and Geo Group one more excuse to print money on top of the profits they have already accrued from indiscriminately detaining immigrants, documented and otherwise. In addition, drug laws in the United States, from their inception, have been used to target black, indigenous, and Latin American people. Furthermore considering that a 2020 analysis conducted by by the American Civil Liberties Union found that black people are nearly four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession, despite the fact that the usage rate is proportionate compared to that of white people, the enforcement of drug laws is done in a racist manner still to this very day.

All things considered, it doesn't take an expert or even a long hard look to parse Trump’s racist ulterior motive to profit from incarcerating people of color as the underlying subtext of this policy. Such a thing can certainly be surmised, to say the least.