We don’t just follow the headlines… we read between the lines to get to the bottom line of what’s really going on.
And long before Washington even admitted there was a problem, The Craig Bushon Show was warning the country that a dangerous loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill had opened the floodgates to unregulated intoxicants disguised as “hemp.”
When we say the 2018 Farm Bill created a dangerous loophole, we mean it blew the doors wide open for a nationwide shadow industry to flourish under the government’s nose. The bill was written with a simple intention: legalize industrial hemp for farmers by defining it as cannabis containing less than 0.3% delta-9 THC. But Congress never anticipated what the industry would do with that single measurement. The law only looked at one form of THC at one moment in time.
It didn’t account for THCA, the raw form of THC that instantly converts into potent delta-9 when heated.
It didn’t account for delta-8 or delta-10, which labs can create by chemically altering CBD.
It didn’t account for manufacturers manipulating plant chemistry to mass-produce intoxicants that technically skirted the definition of marijuana.
So while Washington thought it was helping farmers grow rope and textiles, it accidentally enabled a billion-dollar gray market of psychoactive vapes, edibles, and gummies with no age limits, no potency caps, no testing, and no oversight whatsoever. Consumers believed they were buying “hemp,” when in reality many products hit harder than legal dispensary marijuana.
This wasn’t a loophole — it became an unregulated national drug market, and it happened because Congress didn’t understand the chemistry.
And that’s the crisis The Craig Bushon Show exposed long before Washington had the courage to acknowledge it.
We called it early — before lawmakers even acknowledged it.
In our earlier op-ed, “THCA: The Hidden Toxin in America’s Legal Hemp Boom,” we broke the truth wide open while national outlets stayed silent. We showed how manufacturers were pumping out products loaded with THCA — a compound that becomes full-strength THC once heated — and marketing them as “hemp” to unsuspecting consumers, including minors. We uncovered how states like Tennessee were seeing psychosis cases, ER visits, and dangerous intoxication events tied directly to these mislabeled products. We warned that the neon gummies and disposable vapes sitting next to energy drinks in gas stations were not harmless wellness novelties; they were high-potency intoxicants with no age limits, no testing, and no oversight.
Washington ignored it. The industry profited from it. And families paid the price for it.
Now, finally, Congress is considering the very reforms we said would eventually become unavoidable.
What the bill would do, if passed, is simple and long overdue. It would redefine hemp in a way that shuts down the intoxicating hemp market that sprang out of a legal loophole. “Total THC” would no longer mean just delta-9 THC; it would include delta-8, delta-10, THCA, and similar psychoactive compounds, all capped at 0.3 percent on a dry-weight basis. Any product with more than 0.4 milligrams of combined THC or THCA per container would no longer qualify as hemp. And any chemically converted cannabinoids — including CBD-to-THC conversions — would be banned outright.
If Congress passes this language, nearly the entire intoxicating hemp market disappears overnight. And that’s not a tragedy. That’s a correction.
The pushback is predictable. Industry groups warn the ban will hurt farmers. But let’s be honest: this market was never driven by farmers. It was driven by labs and distributors who built a synthetic THC industry under the hemp label while regulators looked the other way. They filled shelves with highly psychoactive products that would never survive real safety testing and sold them to anyone with cash in hand. No prescriptions. No ID checks. No warnings. That’s not agriculture. That’s a loophole economy built on deception.
The Tennessee story proves why this loophole has to be closed. Tennessee had to act because Washington didn’t. ER doctors saw young people coming in with panic attacks, psychosis, and overdose-like symptoms from gas-station “hemp” products. Sheriffs watched their hands get tied because the products were technically legal. Lawmakers eventually passed SB 3 to rein in the chaos.
Tennessee was ahead of Washington — and so was this show.
Who really profited while all of this happened? National distributors, lab-conversion operations, and marketing companies that treated hemp as their next gold rush. They didn’t care about addiction. They didn’t care about contamination. They didn’t care about the impact on minors. All they cared about was staying inside a loophole large enough to hide behind.
And who suffered? Parents. Teenagers. Consumers who thought “hemp” meant safe. Farmers who wanted to do things the right way. Communities blindsided by a psychoactive market that grew faster than their laws could respond.
If Congress passes this legislation, expect lawsuits, lobbying, and plenty of noise — but also expect something else: clarity. For the first time in years, America would have a clear distinction between hemp as agriculture and THC as an intoxicant. That clarity will save lives, reduce ER visits, protect families, and restore sanity to a marketplace that has operated without rules, standards, or honesty.
The bill isn’t passed yet. But if lawmakers move forward, it will be the most important safety correction the hemp industry has ever seen. And once again, The Craig Bushon Show was ahead of this curve from the beginning.
We saw the science. We saw the public-health warning signs. We listened to the families dealing with the fallout. And we told the truth when others pretended nothing was wrong.
A federal fix will not destroy hemp. It will destroy the deception that has surrounded hemp. And America is long overdue for that honesty.
Disclaimer:
This editorial reflects the analysis and opinions of The Craig Bushon Show media team. It is not medical advice, legal advice, or a substitute for professional consultation. All information is based on publicly available sources, legislative drafts, scientific findings, and ongoing reporting at the time of publication. Consumers should review state laws, consult qualified medical professionals, and rely on official regulatory guidance when evaluating hemp or THC-related products.
