Intoxicating THC from hemp to be banned in a year, with implications for business and consumers

ATLANTA — A year from now, people in the hemp industry expect booming growth in a black market for marijuana and illicit hemp consumables.

That is when beverages, gummies and other products made with THC from the hemp plant will become illegal.

Furloughed government workers will soon get their jobs back and low-income households will get food stamps, but the government shutdown that ended Wednesday with President Donald Trump's signature on a funding bill places a time bomb under the hemp industry.

The new law will ban over 95% of hemp extract products, including most non-intoxicating products made with cannabidiol, or CBD, according to the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, an industry group.

It will have far-reaching effects on hemp businesses and their consumers.

Sen. Mitch McConnel, R-Ky. slip