FLORENCE, Ky. — Christain Perry-Watt owns Kentucky Botanical Company in Florence and Bellevue. After the government funding bill was signed by President Donald Trump, she told me she's worried her stores won't be around much longer.
"So the future of Kentucky Botanical is that we have one year left," Perry-Watt said.
Hemp restrictions are included within the legislation that passed Wednesday.
"I'm definitely blindsided. It feels like every bit of work that we've done for the last seven years to create a business that had a really good reputation, that could have been used for regulations, it feels like it was all for nothing," Perry-Watt said.
Watch to see how federal regulations may shut down a local business:
She walked me through her store and said that the new regulations will shrink the hemp products in her store down to three items.
"So nothing else?" I asked.
"Nothing else," she responded.
Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell put forth the restrictions. He said it closed a loophole set in the 2018 Farm Bill and "allowed the sale of unregulated intoxicating THC products to be manufactured and sold nationwide."
"It will keep these dangerous products out of the hands of children, while preserving the hemp industry for farmers," McConnell said on the Senate floor earlier this week.
- Industrial hemp: Defines “industrial hemp” to clarify that hemp that is used for industrial applications — such as seed, stock, fiber, grain oil — or hemp used in federally authorized research, drug trials, or research at an institution of higher education, including at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture.
- Synthetic “hemp” products: Prohibits synthetic cannabinoids.
- THC Limits in final hemp products: Excludes intoxicating THC products that contain more than 0.4 milligrams of THC per package/container from the definition of hemp.
- Preserves Farm Bill definition in hemp plants: Leaves in place the 0.3% limit on total THC for hemp plants growing in the field.
- Protects CBD: Does NOT place any limits on the amount of non-intoxicating CBD products that can be in a product or container. Industrial hemp and CBD products that contain traceable or low amounts of THC would continue to be legal.
- Implementation and Guidance: To help give our hemp farmers ample time to prepare for their future, the legislation also contains a one-year implementation delay and requires FDA to establish industry guidance within 90 days.
His in-state counterpart, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, was strongly opposed to these restrictions and cited their impact on Kentucky farmers and the economy.
“This is the most thoughtless, ignorant proposal to an industry I have seen in a long, long time," Paul said.
Perry-Watt shared with me her frustrations with people who have sold unsafe products or not followed state regulations.
"The unfortunate part about it is that these bad players who are doing things in the completely wrong way. They’re not following the regulations. They're the most visible, they're the loudest. And that just creates a place where we can never get over this stigma," Perry-Watt said.
I also talked to Jonathan Miller, former Kentucky treasurer and current general counsel for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable. Miller said that new federal regulations don't erase state laws.
“Federal law doesn’t supersede the state laws, but by having this, it makes it practically impossible to have a state-compliant business," Miller said.
Miller added there are lawmakers who may try to get involved before restrictions come to fruition next November.
"I feel really good about our chances in the coming months,” Miller said.
