It’s a little science, a little economics, and now a lot of politics. Here is the backstory, which includes the chemistry of making CBD intoxicating, the booming business of “stoner” hemp and the likely effect on Mt. Folly’s products.
The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp after several state-run pilot programs, started at universities and select farms in 2014, had produced their results. (Mt. Folly started raising pilot program hemp in 2015. This story is recounted in my November 18, 2025 letter, linked here)
The original ratios of cannabinoids found legal were based on data found through these pilot programs, capping THC at 0.3% on a dry weight basis. But this didn’t work out the way legislators anticipated, which was to allow for a new hemp industry making healing but non-intoxicating products. With the new regulation in place, entrepreneurs and chemists grabbed the reins and figured out how to make money from mind-altering hemp products.
Current law, passed as a rider attached to the bill to reopen the US government last November, puts strict and low limits on THC. The legislation mandates no more than .4 mg of THC per container. Most hemp companies will be put out of business, and we here at Laura’s will have to move from selling hemp extracts which are compliant with the original regulations, as close to the plant as possible, to extracts and related products with THC chemically removed. The law goes into effect in November of this year.
So hemp is at a turning point. A loophole created the national “stoner” hemp market, and this new law will change the Mt. Folly and Laura’s Mercantile products you’ve come to know and trust.
How the hemp loophole works
There are two ways of making hemp-derived CBD intoxicating.
First, chemists have a way to make products that get people high while technically meeting the letter of the law. The central step is to make isomers by rearranging and breaking CBD—the “good, non-intoxicating, healing cannabinoid”—into inebriating ones. Acids such as sulfuric, hydrochloric, or phosphoric, plus heat, rearrange the molecules of CBD into various THC isomers, particularly Delta-8 THC and THCA.
In simple terms, labs take legal CBD and turn it into THC-look-alikes that can get you very stoned.
This was challenged in court. In 2022, the 9th Circuit held that hemp-derived Delta-8 fell within the 2018 Farm Bill definition of hemp. Once this legal theory was clear, “stoner” hemp flooded in. This is why you can buy intoxicating gummies, vapes, and beverages online and at gas stations across the country.
The products offered by sketchy companies and a few legacy brands online and at some retailers moved beyond Delta-8 to Delta-10, HHC, THCP, and high-THCA flower marketed as hemp, which converts to high THC when smoked or vaped (heated).
Even without lab tricks, brands found a legal way to pack an intoxicating dose of THC into products like gummies and canned drinks. Here is how that works: the 2018 Farm Bill set limits based on “dry weight basis,” and established hemp brands found ways to include intoxicating amounts of naturally occurring Delta-9 THC in each gummy.
The math that exposes the loophole is worth understanding. It’s gummy-based. A Cannabuzz Northern Lights gummy weighs 6 grams (6,000 mg) and contains 15 mg of THC.
It’s simple division, really. 15mg/6,000 mg = 0.25% Delta-9 on a dry weight basis, so it passes. Similarly, a Cornbread Hemp Blood Orange Bliss 10 mg THC gummy weighs 5 grams (5 g = 5,000 mg), which means they can have up to 0.3% Delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis. Ten milligrams of THC per 5,000 mg of total weight—10/5,000 = 0.002, or 0.2%. So it passes. Ten or 15 mg of Delta -9 THC is definitely enough to make an adult stoned.
This same math applies to 13th Floor, CBD MD, Joy Organics, Koi, Charlotte’s Web, and hundreds of brands like them. Some have pushed it even closer, as the regulation is .3% Delta-9 on a dry weight basis, and the two examples above are 0.25% and 0.2% respectively.
By comparison, Mt. Folly’s gummies weigh 3 grams (3,000 mg) and have 2 mg of THC and 50 mg of CBD per piece, meaning they deliver somewhere between 10-20% of the THC found in the Delta-9 gummies that will make you high. So Mt. Folly gummies will help you sleep or feel better but, taken as directed, won’t make you stoned or high.
The Political Scene Today
Since the November 2025 legislation, hemp companies and associations have rushed to Washington, asking to be treated fairly and not put out of business.
In January, 2026, members of both the House and Senate introduced legislation to delay for two years the enforcement of the November 2025 ban, during which time a regulatory framework will be worked out.
A second bill, introduced in the House, creates a new regulatory framework for cannabinoids by requiring the FDA to initiate rule-making and establishing milligram limits for cannabinoids.
And yet a third bill, the 2026 Farm Bill, is in play. Right now, it only addresses fiber hemp and grain hemp (Mt. Folly has grown both), though there is speculation that versions of the bills detailed above may be “rolled into” the massive bill.
Meanwhile, President Trump signed an executive order stating:
“One in 5 United States adults and nearly 15 percent of seniors reported using CBD in the past year, and chronic pain patients have reported improvements with CBD use in clinical studies.”
The order then goes on to detail real-world situations of mislabeled product, inadequate oversight, and industry chaos, concluding, “In short, the current legal landscape leaves American patients and doctors without adequate guidance or product safeguards for CBD.”
With spring planting around the corner, there is a push for some sort of legislative signal, but who knows?
Laura