New spending bill that reopened the government could ban over 95% hemp products

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Government workers are being paid again.

SNAP benefits are returning in full.

But the hemp industry faces a potential collapse after the bill that reopened the government included a ticking time bomb on the consumable market.

A new law will ban over 95% of hemp extract products, which will affect not just recreational usage, but medicinal and industrial as well. This closes what congress called a “loophole” in the 2018 Farm Bill, which unintentionally allowed products containing THC, a psychoactive compound, to emerge nationwide.

WTOC spoke with former NFL defensive lineman Henry Ostaszewski, who owns Blue42 Organics. He works with around 40 hemp farmers in Georgia — including in the coastal empire — and he says this new ban will wipe out the landscape these farm