The end of the nation’s longest-ever government shutdown came with a little surprise for the hemp industry: A near-total ban on intoxicating products that Congress passed without the kind of debate and consideration this issue deserves.

Buried deep in a spending bill President Donald Trump signed earlier this month, there’s a provision banning products with more than 0.4 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol — or THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. The ban also includes “any other cannabinoids that have similar effects.”

The law is set to take effect a year after the spending bill unless Congress changes its mind again. In this case, it should.

Over the last couple of decades, cannabis, hemp and marijuana have seen big changes on the legal front. Once a target in the war on drug

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