How Hemp-THC businesses are bracing for a near total ban

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  NPR.

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  Recreational weed is legal in half of all the U.S.

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  States.

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  But even in places where it's not,

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  you'll still see smoke shops and liquor stores selling things with that signature star-shaped leaf.

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  THC drinks, vapes, edibles, all of those are legal because of a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill.

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  That bipartisan legislation allowed a low level of THC derived from hemp.

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  Yeah, but when it's treated in a lab, that low level of THC can end up mimicking the effects of weed.

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  Right.

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  That's how we got Delta 8, Delta 9. I think we're up to Delta 11 now.

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  Probably we'll never see Delta 12. Much like the Fast and Furious franchise.

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  But instead of an aging cast and a desperate need for new ideas, this collapse is all on the government.

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  Because Congress is putting an end to that loophole with a harsher ban on THC.

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  This is the Indicator for Planet Money.

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  I'm Adrian Ma.

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  And today I'm joined by Mariana Bakayau, a reporter from WPLN in Nashville.

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  Hey there.

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  Hi, great to be here.

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  And yeah, that ban will mean an end to the hemp industry's most popular products.

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  That's a $28 billion industry that could be gone by the end of the year.

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