Originally published Nov 26, 2025 for our weekly Issue of Mindful Intelligence Advisor. Subscribe to get weekly issues.
By Paul Gordon Collier, Editor
“In effect, this is a total, all out, complete ban on hemp products in the United States.” – Jonathan Miller, U.S. Hemp Roundtable’s general counsel
“There’s a lot of the small retailers, small businesses and farmers that are relying on hemp sales to survive.” – Michael Gorenstein, CEO of Cronos Group
“This will shut everything down. There’s just no way to get to that level.” — Matt Mitchell, owner of Hemp and Barrel.
“Our hope is that within the next year, sensible legislation can be agreed upon and enacted to protect this type of product for all our customers.” — Bryan Farrell, Big Grove spokesperson
INTRODUCTION
On November 12, 2025, the U.S. government shutdown ended after President Donald Trump signed what’s called a CR, a Continuing Resolution that keeps the government open for less than a year. It was the longest government shutdown in the history of the United States. The pressure to reopen the government was rising among both the left and the right (and probably helped the Democrats in the 2025 election).
A CR is optimally a mere continuation of the budget policies of the previous budget, but it has also been used to slip difficult legislation through. This CR had two provisions that fundamentally changed the previous budget’s policies, a provision allowing federal employees to sue if they were spied on by Jack Smith through Operation Arctic Frost and a provision that effectively nukes the consumable CBD industry.
President Donald Trump rose to power with a promise he would end the old political world order and usher in a government more responsive to the American people and more transparent. This government would be on the side of American global excellence that benefits Americans at home.
MIA was working on a report on how Donald Trump represents not a restoration of the American republic, but a creation of a pseudo-American oligarchy with his family positioned to be one of the inside families for generations to come. But then they killed Charlie Kirk….
After the Charlie Kirk assassination, we decided then was not the time to scrutinize what is, effectively, the only voice of REAL POWER in politics for Americans today, Donald Trump.
The President’s willingness to sign a bill that snuck in an industry-crippling provision violates American standards for due process, transparency, and any notion that the government is OF the people. The report is back on. Expect to see a report on President Trump as an ally but not a brother in our Americanism in the first half of 2026 (with the scheduled February 4th issue being the earliest release).
A multi-billion-dollar industry with 300,000 plus people deriving a living from that industry was set on fire in the blink of an eye using all the coercive double-speak standards of a fully empowered swamp.
This is the latest in a growing list of troubling actions by this administration that leads this writer to suspect Donald J Trump may be our most powerful ally against the Progmerican nation within us, but he either doesn’t fully understand the reality of power or he never had any intention of fully restoring and fulfilling the American promise of individual stewardship for all.
Whatever you feel about the growing hemp industry, whatever you feel about the consumption of these new hemp products, Donald Trump and the Republicans used Progmerican tactics to serve other special interests (mainly, the alcohol, medical, and enforcement industries) with no consideration for the reality of power as felt at the street level by their own constituents, the American citizens.
This report will show you how special interest lobbies used an emergency to pass legislation that perpetuates anti-American legislative standards we’ve been suffering under for decades now. The report will show you the legislation that created the industry, how this provision kills that legislation, the potential harms this provision will cause, and how the industry has responded.
I will also make the case for why you should care about this even if you support the outright ban of these hemp products (beyond what you hopefully see already; that it perpetuates coercive legislation-making).
A. HOW IT WAS DONE
Here is the timeline of events leading up to the passage of the hemp provision in the November 2025 CR.
In December of 2018 that year’s Farm Bill passed. It included a provision that effectively legalized a wide variety of new hemp products. From that emerged a new THC/CBD/DELTA market.
By 2023, the U.S. hemp industry reached a $28 billion cap. Texas passed a bill banning most of these products, but the Governor vetoed the bill.
In March of 2025, Kentucky passed legislation capping hemp-derived THC beverages at 5 milligrams.
On July 10, 2025, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced legislation to ban intoxicating hemp products, but it failed to gain traction.
On September 23, 2025, Hemp farmers asked McConnell for a meeting, citing a willingness to agree to some new regulations, some of which they’ve already been calling on. McConnell declined the meeting.
McConnell decided to introduce his ban into the budget bill, which was met with a partisan pushback from Republicans, including James Comer.
On October 1, 2025, the government shutdown began.
On the weekend of November 8-9, a settlement was reached. Afterwards. Mitch McConnell inserted his hemp provision into the new CR, along with endorsements from 39 state AGS. They argue state laws are not enough to address the “intoxicating products.”
On November 10, the Senate debated and voted on the CR. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) filed an amendment to strike down the McConnell poison pill, but that was struck down, with 22 Democrats and 2 Republicans (including Paul) being the only ones to support the amendment.
Debate for the provision itself lasted no more than 20 minutes between 8:00am and 8:20am.
On November 11, 2025, the House passes the CR by a vote of 222-209, mostly along party lines (with the GOP voting for it). The hemp provision debate lasted no more than 10 minutes, from 2:30pm to 2:40pm.
The total debate time for a provision that IMMEDIATELY affects the lives of 300,000 Americans and millions more Americans deriving medical therapeutic use for these products was no more than 30 MINUTES TOTAL.
President Trump, knowing full well the nature of the poison pill within the CR, signed the bill November 12. One can reasonably argue Trump was choosing between two hard decisions, but this writer suspects this was hardly a tough decision for him at all, one that might pay off for him down the road in the form of RINO favor at a critical time.
This was the reflection of Trump’s pragmatism and with his association of wealth with Great America, as opposed to upholding the principles of a government OF the people, FOR the people, BY the people, not one of special interests making life or death decisions that affect millions mostly based on their own profit-driven market needs. This is not the free market; this is a controlled economy.
It was also a reflection of the dangers of “market conservatism” to Americanism (which, again, is not a free market economy).
As for popularity, a poll from McLaughlin & Associates in October of 2025 showed 72% of Americans support the continued legalization of the hemp products McConnell’s GOP-supported poison pill just nuked.
B. THE 2018 FARM BILL
The 2018 Farm Bill that passed in December of that same year changed the definition of hemp to any cannabis plant or its derivatives containing no more than 0.3% delta-9 THC by dry weight. This created space for a whole host of alternative Delta-9s, Delta-8s, THC-As, TCH-Os, etc.
Hemp growers would have a new market.
Daniel Kruger, PhD, a research associate professor at the University at Buffalo, said of the bill that it “created this massive market for products like CBD and then delta-8 based on this definition. These are products that you can often get at smoke shops or at gas stations. You can order them online. They’re most popular in states that don’t have a legalized pathway to cannabis, so people are using them as a workaround.”
Since that bill’s passage, a new $28 billion industry has emerged, providing direct employment to 300,000 people, and indirectly commercially benefiting hundreds of thousands of businesses that support the industry.
C. THE NEW REGULATIONS
Staten Island Attorney General Joshua Bauchner told the publication Staten Islander that the hemp provision in the CR “supersedes the Farm Bill which, technically, is supposed to be renewed every five years, but does not go into effect until one year from passage, or November 2026, to permit further regulation, particularly at the state level… it completely changes what is legal. The distinction between hemp and marijuana is a fiction without scientific basis. In theory, hemp is not psychoactive and marijuana is. They both come from the same cannabis sativa plant. However, the threshold for that determination varies significantly based on the product and the consumer. The CR looks to a Total THC measure, rather than just Delta-9 THC.”
Healthline’s description of the provision outlines the essential points of the new regulation:
… The new definition states that hemp may contain no more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container. A “container” is defined as the “innermost wrapping, packaging or vessel in direct contact with a final hemp-derived cannabinoid product.”
Additionally, cannabinoids that are synthesized or manufactured outside of the plant will be banned. Delta-8 THC, for example, does naturally occur in cannabis, but in small quantities. In order to commercialize it, delta-8 THC producers utilize a form of chemical synthesis, during which it is converted from CBD.
One section of the bill that has drawn significant scrutiny is the provision banning cannabinoids with “similar effects” to THC. The vague language could give lawmakers wide latitude to regulate a broad range of compounds.
The FDA must issue clarifying guidance within 90 days, including a list of cannabinoids that fall under the “similar effects” clause.
This hastily written provision, whose sloppy language reflects that hastiness, was passed by the Republican Party primarily, under Donald Trump, with 30 total minutes of debate combined from both legislative chambers.
This writer has said it before and will say it again, America needs American parties. The Democrats are Progmericans, which are no Americans at all, and the Republicans seems to AINOS, Americans in name only (which is AT LEAST a lot less threatening than being anti-Americanist like the DNC).
Our only real political ally is the AINO party.
C. THE POTENTIAL DAMAGE DONE
We earlier referenced Staten Island Attorney General Joshua Bauchner’s interview with Staten Islander. In that same interview, the AG outlined one major problem the Farm Bill created that this provision exploited.
He told Staten Islander, “Congress created a viable and robust hemp industry through the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. Unfortunately, this created a fictional distinction between hemp and marijuana, both of which come from the same cannabis plant.”
He continued, “Rather than destroy the hemp industry (at the request of the liquor and marijuana industries) the better course would have been to create a safe and regulated market for all cannabis; intoxicating hemp, medicinal and adult-use marijuana, and everything in between.”
He concluded, “By fabricating two ‘types’ of cannabis, two industries — one legal (hemp) and one illegal (marijuana) at the federal level — multiple, distinct state regulatory programs, and enticing farmers, manufacturers, and retailers to participate, Congress created a wholesale mess and, in typical fashion, tried to fix that mess by covering it up with an even bigger mess – at the loss of jobs and livelihoods.”
At risks are the businesses, careers, and jobs of 300,000 Americans, and that’s just the direct hit. Many of these are family-owned businesses that have found a way to make a nice living providing a service they enjoy providing. Again, this was done with 30 minutes of combined total debate in both legislative chambers.
Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), told Healthline “By seeking to recriminalize this market rather than regulate it, lawmakers chose to utilize a sledgehammer when they should have used a scalpel. Banning the hemp-derived products market will not decrease consumers’ demand for these products, nor will it increase consumers’ safety. Instead, it will deny many consumers who previously relied on these products, including those who did so for therapeutic purposes, from legally accessing them in the future.”
One such victim of the therapeutic user group was featured by CNN. They documented the case of a 14-year-old who has found that only CBD effectively keeps her crippling seizures at bay. The very CBDs she needs appear to be on the ban list.
The girl’s daughter, Lisa Smith, told CNN, “She just basically existed. She didn’t really live. And after our first dose of CBD, she was able to stay awake. She started to learn… But prior to that, there was just no hope for us.”
After 10 years of using the drug, Haley’s seizures are down from multiple times a day to two to four times a month. Her family told CNN they fear what they will do if they must face a world without that therapeutic aid.
D. THE INDUSTRY RESPONSE
Cannabis Business Times reflected the hemp industry response in its statement on the passage of the hemp provision:
The 2018 Farm Bill left loopholes that some have exploited, flooding the market with synthetic, intoxicating, and untested products masquerading as compliant hemp products. These products mislead consumers and threaten public trust, and we support banning unsafe, unregulated products.
But equally banning safe, science-backed CBD products that help vulnerable communities would result in nothing short of a public health crisis. It would shut down 95% of the hemp industry, destroy tens of thousands of jobs, and devastate American farmers. It would leave millions of Americans without access to safe, non-intoxicating wellness products they’ve come to rely on.
The proposed 0.4 milligram total THC container limit is not based on science. According to a recently published study by Dr. Ryan Vandrey of Johns Hopkins University, low oral doses of THC, up to 2.8mg, do not cause intoxication or impairment.
As the industry leader, we understand the need for regulation. But regulation must be rooted in science, facts, and action—not fear.
The industry itself had been seeking regulations, solid regulations that accounted for safety, for childhood access, and other issues. An industry that faces constant changing regulations has exploding expenses with each regulation change, so the industry has a self-serving interest in seeing STABLE safety regulations happen.
Coastal Green Wellness offers the industry this “Silver Lining:”
The most important takeaway for you as a consumer is the timeline. The language passed on November 12th, 2025, has a one-year implementation window.
This means nothing at the federal level changes for one full calendar year, starting on November 12th, 2025… This grace period gives the industry a crucial window to fight back…
The entire hemp industry is mobilizing. This new federal language is not viewed as a viable or sustainable solution; it is an act of prohibition that dismantles a multi-billion-dollar industry supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs and countless consumers.
SUMMARY
The title of the report is a little tongue in cheek, but it’s intended to make a point. Many on the right are silent about this passage, and many more seem to embrace it. Most of them seem to be buying the narrative that this is just about ending the fun for potheads. To a lesser extent, the “save the children” narrative is broken out to support the ban.
What they don’t realize is that this passage harms far more than “potheads,” and it further erodes American Rule of Law standards. It also hurts President Trump’s political power.
This writer has no doubt that the election win of Donald J Trump in 2024 has saved us from existential threats far beyond what we face with the Trump-led-GOP majority government, so take that caveat into account as we offer serious critique to this administration, and something beyond that for the AINO Party, the GOP.
Trump’s handling of the Epstein Files, where he told his base that they were believing fake news when they continued to push to see the files finally get released, was a critical, but not fatal, blow to his MAGA brand. It made him seem as inauthentic as any swamp politician ever did.
What follows next is an own goal that might not immediately hurt his brand, but as it gets closer and closer to the deadline to pass a less draconian version of the ban, more and more Americans, his own voters, will start seeing Trump as being just as inauthentic as any other politician, especially as they experience harm as businesses begin to shut down (See how this will hurt him in the final part of our Detaining the Donkey series on pg. 2).
The passage of this bill chips further away at Trump’s political capital, and we Americans need that capital in order for him to continue to do the things we support, as well as some of the things we’ve been waiting to see (such as having the political capital to prosecute leading Democrats for treason, see pg. 2 for more on this).
If he loses political capital, the MAGA advance will come grinding to a halt and the counter-reformers will start to claw back his gains before his term even expires.
This bill also reaffirms the swamp’s tactics for making laws and rewards the highest political bidder with the spoils that come from a double-edged sword slicing open the underbelly of a whole industry just so its highest bidders can feast on the corpse.
So far, conservatives are mostly dead silent about this passage. They’re not even concerned with the violation, at least in spirit, of due process and rule of law, that was necessary for this socialist-like legislation to pass. This legislation is not at all in keeping with so-called “conservative fiscalism.”
The same gang that refuses to risk all to push to end abortion in America, while it also refuses to defiantly stand up to coerced acceptance of the LBGTQ+ plus orthodoxy, suddenly finds morals when it comes to hemp products.
Ok, so the target is high concentrations of THC and related products in liquids and jells, ostensibly, but the hammer shatters more than the target, which is most likely by design.
Our readers already know the lesson we can learn from this report. For those who haven’t been reading MIA regularly, or for those our readers have shared this report with, the lesson is this; neither party, not the Democrats, and certainly not the Republicans, either understand (in the case of the GOP) or want (in the case of the DNC) true Americanism.
Trump and the GOP want the outfits of America, but not the soul, though they’re willing to tolerate it. The Democrats want to burn the outfits and exorcise the soul.
Let us keep that in mind when we determine our reaction to our world today. In this spirit, we still hope for Trump to succeed in the areas we support him (which is still the majority of his policies). We hope he reverses his decline in political capital, for we recognize we need it maybe MORE than he does.
We also pray that the saving grace of Christ can become known to him.
Were Trump to find Christ this writer is sure many of the scales that are still over his eyes would fall away, and the fires of vanity concealing reality in their smoke and flames within will be put out in the flowing of living water.
FURTHER RESOURCES:
The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 27, 1913 – Arthur S. Line, Editor
The Administrative State: How America Was Deceived – RJ Salerno
The Administrative State: A Study of the Political Theory of American Public Administration – Dwight Waldo
Trump: the Art of the Deal – Donald J. Trump, Tony Schwartz
