Proposed hemp ban collides with federal shutdown

Intoxicating hemp companies are sounding the alarm that Congress could wipe out their $30B industry as part of a deal to end the monthlong government shutdown. The largely unregulated hemp industry has proven a formidable and often resented competitor to state-licensed cannabis operators since hemp companies sell similar products unburdened by the taxes and constraints plaguing the legal industry.

Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose push to legalize industrial hemp in the federal 2018 Farm Bill created the intoxicating hemp industry, has made closing the so-called hemp loophole a priority of his . . .