By Max Jackson, Cannabis Wise Guys
Missouri's Senate passed a bill banning intoxicating hemp products. Texas is enforcing its smokable hemp ban. Virginia hemp operators are pleading with Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) to preserve their industry while a federal law recriminalizing hemp THC products looms for November 12. Operators frame this as overreach. The record says otherwise.
Virginia retailers are selling jars with 500mg of THC per container, marketed as "VA Legal" via a 25:1 CBD-to-THC ratio — CBD present as compliance arithmetic, not therapy. The national adult-use standard is 100mg per package; Michigan, the most permissive regulated state, caps solid edibles at 200mg; Virginia's HB 642 sets 100mg. The 500mg jar holds 2.5 times the most lenient regulated limit, sold without a license.
Virginia's proposed fix is a 2mg-per-package cap; operators are asking Spanberger for a 500mg alternative — the same product already on shelves. Starting April 13, 2026, New Jersey's S3235 moves intoxicating hemp beverages into licensed Class 5 dispensaries at 5mg per serving and 10mg per container; original bill language requiring hemp behind the counter was deleted by amendment.
On March 31, Martha Figaro, co-founder of CannPowerment — a Class 2 cannabis manufacturer operating in New Jersey since December 2023 and partially funded by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority — testified before the Cannabis Regulatory Commission. Her company carries testing, packaging, seed-to-sale tracking, taxes, social equity contributions, municipal fees and licensing costs that hemp operators do not. "Two products with similar intoxicating effects are being sold in the same stores," Figaro told the commission. "One category operates with broader commercial flexibility. The other carries the full regulatory burden of the CRC framework." She added: "The state is asking the fully regulated cannabis market to compete with one hand tied behind its back."
North Carolina's governor-appointed Advisory Council on Cannabis documented the same pattern in its Interim report: "North Carolinians — including our youth — can legally purchase intoxicating hemp-derived products devoid of any potency limits, standardized laboratory testing, or clear labeling requirements." A peer-reviewed study found 62.5% of CBD websites and 30% of Delta-8 websites required no age verification; not one of twenty products required delivery verification.
Virginia opens adult-use applications in September. The federal standard — 0.4mg total THC per finished container — takes effect November 12. Every operator entering these markets inherits a regulatory environment shaped by an industry that spent its capital defending a loophole.
Max Jackson is the founder of Cannabis Wise Guys.