Vibe Check: Rescheduling & Federal Hemp Ban

The latest updates & related news.

Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Time to read: About 5 minutes. Contains 1,332 words.

Good morning!

The year did not get off to as productive (or humane, ethical, or inspiring) a start as I’d hoped, but here we are. I hope all of you are prevailing against January blues/doomsday resignation as best you can. Personally, I’ve found reprieve and even hope while revisiting HBO’s Watchmen series—its world of masked law enforcement and post-woke politics is as prescient as ever, and not to be written off as superhero malarky if you’ve never seen it!—as well as Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, the source text for the bones of One Battle After Another but far richer in spirit and story of aging revolutionaries pulled back into a tango with rogue feds. I can’t handle Pynchon’s prose with more than a few milligrams of THC in my system, but it’s its own high to ride that ride.

I figured it makes the most sense to get caught up on the two most significant things happening in weed right now: rescheduling cannabis and the federal hemp ban. Here’s a recap of where we’re at with each, along with the latest updates and efforts working for and against these shifts.

Sweet Bear at Rosebud Farms, the medical grow I worked at in 2016.

Reclassifying Cannabis From Schedule I to Schedule III

To recap: Last month, President Trump ordered the Justice Department to fast-track the reclassification of cannabis to Schedule III, which would put it alongside regulated pharmaceuticals like anabolic steroids and Tylenol with codeine. The change would, in theory, open access to traditional banking services, allowing plant-touching businesses to obtain loans and process electronic payments, as well as take tax deductions and credits for the first time. (That said, the American Bankers Association has previously stated that dedicated legislation like the SAFER Banking Act would make them more comfortable doing biz with weed people than reclassification.) Schedule 3 would also open up medical research capabilities.

The executive order didn’t automatically make anything real, though—it ordered the Attorney General and relevant agencies to complete the formal process asap, which kicked off during Biden’s last term. A bunch of stuff still needs to happen for the rescheduling to happen. The Dept. of Justice and Drug Enforcement Agency have to first publish an official proposal, followed by a 1-2 month public comment period, which is typically followed by legal challenges. Once litigation is resolved, the final ruling can be issued, making rescheduling a reality. Until then, it’s status quo.

What’s New

• Two Republican senators filed an amendment last week to block the Justice Department from carrying out President Donald Trump’s executive order.
  
  

• Much of the Republican party isn’t happy about the order, period—POLITICO revealed that 22 Senate Republicans, including all four members of Senate Republican leadership, sent a letter urging Trump not to proceed on the eve of his announcement.
  
  

• While reclassification could benefit cannabis businesses of all sizes, it’s worth noting which cannabis interests actually have Trump’s ear. I want to call out two people who were in the Oval Office the day the executive order was signed: Kim Rivers, the CEO of Trulieve (the second largest cannabis company in the world and monopoly ruler of Florida’s medical market), and Jim Hagedorn, the CEO of Scotts Miracle-Gro (which has invested heavily in their cannabis arm, Hawthorne). It doesn’t get bigger, more extractive, or more corporate than that.
  
  

• Speaking of Scotts Miracle-Gro. They are the exclusive marketer and distributor of Roundup—a popular herbicide produced by Monsanto that has been linked to cancer (and is slowly destroying Earth’s natural food supply). You might have heard something about Roundup or its active ingredient glyphosate in recent weeks—that’s because internal Monsanto emails made public through litigation recently revealed that a highly influential 2000 review article concluding glyphosate was not harmful was, in fact, mostly written by Monsanto employees. If it’s in your/your parent’s garage, throw that shit out right now.
  
  

• Reclassification will not stop people getting arrested for possession. Some celebrations of reclassification misunderstand the fact that reclassifying cannabis does not make it less illegal. In an interview with the Guardian, Cat Packer, director of drug markets and legal regulation at the Drug Policy Alliance, explains how, “Under the Controlled Substance Act, marijuana has specific penalties that are not dependent on whatever schedule marijuana is on.” Additionally, the Department of Justice rescinded Biden-era guidance in September that directed US attorneys to refrain from prosecuting simple cannabis possession cases.
  

The Federal Hemp Ban

To recap: The spending bill that reopened the government in November was embedded with a provision that changes the definition of hemp to include all forms of THC, including THCA, and caps maximum THC at 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container, effectively closing the loophole created by the 2018 Farm Bill for intoxicating hemp products. It overrides state laws that currently regulate hemp-derived intoxicants, and, if nothing changes between now and then, would go into effect November of this year.

What’s New

• Congressman Jim Baird (R-IN) introduced a bill this month that would delay the ban for two years. Going by the “Hemp Planting Predictability Act” (H.R. 7024), the goal is to give time and security to current hemp operators to be able to see this and next year’s crops through (planting season is around the corner) and buy time to figure out a longer term reversal/revision of federal hemp rules. Its co-sponsors include Reps. James Comer (R-KY), Gabe Evans (R-CO), Tim Moore (R-NC) and Angie Craig (D-MN). The U.S. Hemp Roundtable is putting their weight (and their lobbyists) into supporting this bill as well. U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Rand Paul, and Jeff Merkley also seem to have introduced a separate two-year delay bill.
  
  

• More hemp lobbyists hit the Hill. In December, two new hemp entities registered to lobby Congress: Hemp Industry & Farmers of America, which is working to “maintain the status of hemp cultivation and manufacturing as expressed in the current Farm Bill law in the next update of the Farm Bill,” and Team Hemp Inc., which, according to Cannabis Wire, hired three different lobbying firms in November that are “well-connected to Republicans and the Trump administration.”
  
  

• One question: Is the ban even enforceable? A resource report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), a government agency, stated that it remains ‘unclear’ how the federal hemp ban will be enforced in practice. The FDA hasn’t been bothered to send more than letters to noncompliant operators thus far—who’s to say they’ll have bandwidth for more than that if and when the hemp ban hits? It made me curious about California, where hemp is technically banned but plenty of folks continue to produce and ship THC-infused products under the 2018 Farm Bill rules. I know some are playing it safe, but is that ban being enforced at all for DTC companies still shipping to CA consumers? (Honest question to my CA people!)
  
  

• That spending bill also included a potential doomsday ban on cannabis genetics. Going to need some lobbyists to throw their weight into this one, too! 😰 The ban restricts “any viable seeds from a Cannabis sativa L. plant that exceeds a total tetrahydrocannabinol concentration (including THCA) of 0.3% in the plant on a dry weight basis”, essentially restricting seeds based on the plants they might produce. However, while the new legislation addresses ‘viable seeds,’ it doesn’t mention tissue cultures and clones. So seeds may potentially no longer be able to ship nationwide, but clones would? Not ideal for pests, but a potential loophole for precious genetic diversity. ✤

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Tl; DR: This conversation between Oregon Public Radio, cannabis economist Beau Whitney, and friend and hemp grower Mason Walker of East Fork Cultivars walks through the implications of both of these legislative shifts pretty comprehensively in one easy 20-minute chat.

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Keep puffing the good puff,
Lauren Yoshiko