Hemp laws in the weeds

December 16th, 2025

By Bryce Vincent Haugen

Audra Maurer never used marijuana until Minnesota businesses started to sell low-dose hemp-derived THC products.

“The first time I was pain free was using legalized hemp edibles,” said the 36-year-old Moorhead resident who was attending a fundraiser at Junkyard Brewing, which sells a variety of THC drinks it makes in-house.

Those products, including all intoxicating hemp-derived drinks, gummies, vapes and oils will no longer be available next November due to the agriculture spending bill Congress passed last month, one of the measures that ended the government shutdown. It’s estimated the industry garners $30 billion in annual sales and supports 300,000 jobs nationwide. In Minnesota, it is an estimated $200 million industry with sales at thousands of liquor stores, breweries, convenience stores and grocers supporting several thousand jobs. Because Minnesota legalized recreational THC in 2023, that much more highly regulated industry will not be directly affected.

According to a letter in support of the legislation from 39 attorneys general, Minnesota’s Keith Ellison among them, “Congress never meant to legalize these products in the 2018 farm bill. A proper interpretation of the farm bill’s hemp provision demonstrates that the entire synthetic THC industry rests on a foundation of illicit conduct. Clear direction from Congress is needed to shut down this industry before it metastasizes further into an even greater threat to public safety than it already is.”

Non-intoxicating industrial hemp products are exempt from the ban. Audra Maurer calls the new law, sponsored by Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell and supported by North Dakota’s senators while opposed by Minnesota’s senators, “unbelievably stupid.”

Junkyard Brewing co-owner Aaron Juhnke said the ban will be devastating to the non-alcohol side of his business.

“I personally think the hemp ban would do a lot of unnecessary economic damage,” Juhnke said. “The main reason I’ve heard for this ban is there are public safety concerns with hemp-derived THC being produced in states without regulations in place and I think those concerns are valid. However, I think the solution is to sensibly regulate these products (like Minnesota has done) not to ban them outright.”

Juhnke said Junkyard will continue to produce the hemp-derived drinks as long as they are allowed to. He added that THC and alcohol are competing industries that he has an interest in on both sides.

“But even if we lost the ability to sell THC, I think I would still support its legal and regulated sale,” he said. “I just don’t see any public safety or health information that would suggest THC needs to be treated much differently than alcohol as a recreational drug.”

Even the Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association (MLBA) opposes the ban.

“MLBA’s position is straightforward: This ban is unnecessary, harmful to small businesses and…

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