Kentucky hemp farmers tell Sen. Mitch McConnell not to ‘criminalize’ their harvest over THC products

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - A fight over the future of hemp-derived, THC-infused drinks and other products has Senator Mitch McConnell at odds with Kentucky hemp farmers.

58 hemp farmers signed a letter to McConnell on Monday, requesting a meeting and warning not to criminalize their harvest.

Hemp with a THC content of 0.3 percent by weight became legal in the 2018 Farm Bill.

Originally championed by Mitch McConnell, Kentucky’s senior senator is now trying to roll it back.

“McConnell did a 180 on his own legislation and is seeking to make all THC from hemp illegal,” Cornbread Hemp co-founder Jim Higdon said, “which would eliminate all of our products from legitimate commerce.”

Cornbread Hemp sells THC gummies and seltzer in compliance with the federally required 0.3% limit.

In August, McConnell spoke on the Senate floor, citing threats to children, and accused companies like Cornbread Hemp of trying to make a “quick buck” by “exploiting a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill by taking legal amounts of THC from hemp and turning it into intoxicating substances.”

“We are not operating in any loophole,” Higdon said. “We are operating under the plain language of the law. And Senator McConnell’s solution does not close a loophole; it rewrites the plain language of the law.”

Higdon’s said his company employs 100 people, 100 jobs now at risk, at a time of growing popularity for the product.

Cornbread Hemp signed high-profile sponsorships with the Kentucky State Fair and UofL athletics.

Business is so good, Higdon said, that the 60 acres of hemp they are growing on a farm in Marion County could more than double in size.

The letter to McConnell, signed by hemp farmers, emphasized in bold letters, “Do not criminalize our harvest. Protect our farms.”

Kentucky Hemp Association President Dee Dee Taylor warned of the potential for industry collapse.

“There are a lot of hemp farmers in Kentucky,” Taylor said. “They need to be allowed to keep growing their plants and then being able to sell it.”

“We received the letter this week and are processing the request,” McConnell spokesman Robert Steurer said Wednesday. “Senator McConnell continues to have conversations with interested parties on both sides of the issue. His hemp language simply restores the original intent of the original bill and closes the loophole. His language did not change the THC limit in the hemp plant – it maintained the 2018 Farm Bill definition. Under the language, industrial hemp and CBD products remain legal.”

In August, Senator Rand Paul expressed his opposition to McConnell in an op-ed published in the Courier Journal.

"My opposition to the amendment proposed by Sen. McConnell is that it would essentially set the legal limit of THC in CBD products to zero," Paul said. “The hemp industry has warned that completely prohibiting a naturally occurring substance will destroy the industry, in part because customers likely buy these products for the perceived health benefits of low levels of THC.”