The Federal Fight Over Hemp, Explained
Featured image: Patrick Henry Before the Virginia House of Burgesses, Peter F. Rothermel (1851), public domain.
Part of an ongoing series on the state of hemp-derived THC law. This article covers the federal picture. For what changed in Texas on July 31, see THC Is Still Legal in Texas — Here's What Actually Changed.
Texas isn't the only place hemp-derived THC is being fought over right now. Washington is having its own version of the argument — and unlike the Texas fight, this one is being led by the same senator who legalized hemp in the first place.
Here's the short version: hemp-derived Delta-9 THC — the kind in every Howdy product — remains legal today for adults 21+ under state and federal law, at or below 0.3% Delta-9 THC by dry weight. What follows is the story of how a law change working through Congress could redraw that line a year from now, why a delay for that change already cleared half of Congress, and why beverages specifically have a real shot at being the format that survives whatever happens next.
The senator who wrote the rule now wants to rewrite it
The 2018 Farm Bill is the reason hemp products exist as a legal, mainstream category at all. It defined hemp as cannabis with no more than 0.3% Delta-9 THC by dry weight and removed it from the federal controlled substances list. The bill's chief architect was Senate Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, home to a hemp industry he was trying to revive.
Seven years later, McConnell is the author of the provision trying to redraw that same line. On November 12, 2025, President Trump signed a federal appropriations bill into law — Public Law 119-37 — and buried inside it, in Section 781, is a rewrite of the original hemp definition. McConnell's stated reasoning: the 2018 bill "sought to create an agricultural hemp industry, not open the door to the sale of unregulated, intoxicating, lab-made, hemp-derived substances with no safety framework."
Section 781 does three things. It swaps the current 0.3% Delta-9-only threshold for a "Total THC" standard that also counts THCA (the non-intoxicating acid that converts to Delta-9 when heated), still capped at 0.3% by dry weight. It adds a new limit that didn't exist before: no more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per finished container, regardless of dry-weight percentage. And it bans synthetic and semi-synthetic cannabinoids — the CBD-converted delta-8, delta-10, and similar isomers that have caused most of the regulatory backlash nationally, Texas included.
The law is not in effect yet. It carries a 365-day transition, which puts the effective date at November 12, 2026.
Why the 0.4mg number matters for beverages specifically
A 0.4mg-per-container cap is a different kind of limit than a percentage. It doesn't scale with can size the way a dry-weight percentage does — it's a hard ceiling regardless of format. Industry voices have been blunt about what that would mean for beverages formulated at typical low-dose strengths: as one beverage-industry executive put it, a cap that low "just flat out bans all products" at anything close to today's common dosing.
That's the number driving most of the anxiety in the hemp beverage industry right now. It's also exactly the number Congress is currently fighting over.
The delay that passed the Senate — and why it isn't law yet
In early August 2026, the U.S. Senate passed a continuing appropriations package that included language pushing the Section 781 effective date from November 12 back to December 11, 2026 for a subset of affected products. The vote was lopsided — an overwhelming bipartisan majority in favor, with only a handful of senators opposed.
That is genuinely good news for anyone tracking this fight. It is also, as of this writing, not law. A Senate vote is one chamber of one branch. The delay still needs to clear the House and be signed. Nothing about the November 12 date changes until that happens. We're not going to tell you it's fixed — because it isn't, yet. We're also not going to tell you the sky is falling, because a one-month delay clearing the Senate this decisively is a real signal about where the votes are, not a formality.
Call it what it is: a developing story, trending in the industry's favor, not yet resolved.
The bill that actually looks like a fix for drinks
A one-month delay buys time. It doesn't solve the underlying problem — that a 0.4mg hard cap doesn't work for a beverage category built around consistent, moderate per-serving dosing. That's what makes a separate, newer bill worth watching more closely than the delay fight.
Introduced July 22, 2026, the Lawful Hemp Protection Act (H.R. 9830) — sponsored by Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) and Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) — takes a completely different approach to hemp beverages than the rest of the federal debate. Instead of a milligram cap on a can, it would regulate hemp-derived beverages the way the federal government already regulates beer, wine, and spirits: through the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau's three-tier system, with a threshold measured as a percentage of the finished product (up to 1%) rather than a fixed milligram number, mandatory 21+ sales, and a continued ban on synthetic cannabinoids.
That framework — beverage-specific, percentage-based, built on regulatory infrastructure that already exists for alcohol — is the closest thing in Congress right now to a beverage industry looking at itself and writing rules that actually fit the format. It hasn't passed. It's a bill, not a law. But it's the one place in the entire federal debate where "hemp beverage" is the starting point of the policy, not an afterthought getting squeezed by a number designed with gummies and tinctures in mind.
The states aren't waiting on Washington
While Congress works through this, states are setting their own rules — and the picture is a patchwork, not a single national trend in either direction.
Minnesota has become the reference model. The state built a full regulatory framework: licensing, mandatory age verification, lab testing and labeling requirements, and a 5mg-per-serving cap enforced by its Office of Cannabis Management. That 5mg number is worth noting directly: it’s the low-dose format the beverage category has been converging on — the same 5 and 10mg servings our drinks are built on. If Washington ends up looking for a template, Minnesota’s the one most often cited as the blueprint.
Other states are moving in sharper directions. Ohio passed a categorical ban on hemp-derived THC products at the end of 2025; a referendum campaign is now underway to put repeal on the November 2026 ballot. New Jersey and Tennessee have restricted retail sales of certain hemp products. California moved THCA products into the licensed dispensary channel only, starting this year. More states have bills pending or stalled.
None of this changes what's legal in Texas today, and this article isn't legal advice for any state. The point is bigger than any one state line: hemp beverages are the format regulators keep landing on as the one worth building rules for, not banning outright — because low, consistent dosing is exactly what age-gated, tested, labeled regulation is built to handle.
Where this leaves low-dose beverages
Zoom out and a pattern shows up across every layer of this fight — Texas, federal, state-by-state. The categories drawing the harshest treatment are the ones that are hardest to regulate consistently: synthetic cannabinoids, high-potency smokable flower, products with THC content that's difficult to standardize or verify at the point of sale. The categories drawing serious, good-faith attempts at sensible regulation — Minnesota's framework, the Barr-Craig bill — are built around exactly what a canned, lab-tested, clearly labeled, low-dose beverage already is.
That's not a guarantee of any particular outcome on November 12, or December 11, or whenever this actually resolves. Nobody gets to promise that, and we're not going to. What we can tell you is that hemp-derived Delta-9 beverages made at consistent low doses, tested and labeled the way ours are, sit in the part of this fight where the people trying to write sensible rules — not just louder ones — keep pointing as the model to build toward.
We'll keep this page updated as Washington moves. For now: hemp-derived Delta-9 THC remains legal for adults 21+ under state and federal law, and it's what's in every can we make.
Keep reading: THC Is Still Legal in Texas · Why THC Beverages Are the Category Left Standing
21+. Texas hemp-derived. Consume responsibly. Keep out of reach of children and pets. Hemp-derived Delta-9 THC products contain no more than 0.3% Delta-9 THC by dry weight, as defined under the 2018 Farm Bill and applicable state law. This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Laws referenced are subject to change; verify current status before relying on this page for compliance decisions. 2202 Dallas St., Houston, TX 77003.
