The Department of Agriculture announced last week that it will delay the enforcement of certain requirements of a December 2019 interim final rule for industrial hemp producers. USDA will postpone—either until Oct. 31, 2021 or until a final rule is published—the requirement for industrial hemp labs to be registered by the Drug Enforcement Administration and for producers to use a DEA-registered reverse distributor or law enforcement to dispose of non-compliant plants under certain circumstances.
USDA issued its interim final rule last year to establish regulations and procedures for the legal production of industrial hemp, as required by the 2018 Farm Bill, which reclassified hemp as a legal agricultural commodity.
ABA welcomed the delay, having raised concerns in previous comments that the USDA’s restrictions would make it impossible for some growers to access approved test facilities to test their hemp crops for tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, potency.
