In an interview with The Dales Report, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said today that he’s “very fearful” that the entire hemp industry “could be made illegal within the next two weeks”.
In the interview that aired today, Senator Paul said he’s “very fearful that the whole industry could be made illegal within the next two weeks”, saying that those who oppose the move “need to be calling their senators and congressmen.”
Paul said he believe there’s “No reason to make this illegal”, adding “can’t we figure out a way to regulate it without prohibiting it?”
One of the show’s hosts, Shadd Dales, responded by asking “Wow, so you think the next two weeks, that’s a real possibility?”
Paul said “It may be 2-3-4 weeks, but it could happen with the spending bill that’s happening within the next week, it also could happen in a conference committee report.”
“I’d prefer that we do nothing for now and send us back to committee and study it for a year and not be too rash, so we don’t ruin the industry”, he added.
In July, both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees approved a spending bill that included a ban on hemp-derived THC products, a ban so strict that some argued it would ban all hemp products. The provision was later blocked in the Senate by Senator Paul, but he says the block may not hold.
“I was able to block the language completely, for now. The House language passed out of committee with language we think would prohibit hemp and we think end the hemp industry.”
Paul said the two chambers are going to a conference committee to work out the two versions of the spending bill, saying “I’ve asked the leaders who will be on this conference committee will they conference about the hemp issue.. and they said yes, which is kind of extraordinary. So there’s still some fear that the prohibitionist language will be in there.”
Paul added “I’ve talked to a lot of players on this and tried to convince them to change the language, and we’ve at least had an audience and presented things. None of it is exactly to my liking, but it is less bad. We’re hoping for less bad right now. We’re trying to do everything we can to stop it from being prohibited.”
The full interview can be found here.
