LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Hemp products that are legal today could be classified the same as heroin under language in the bill that reopened the federal government — and Kentucky business owners are fighting back.
Cornbread Hemp, a Louisville-based company that employs more than 100 people, says all of its products would become illegal in November 2026 if Congress does not change the language. The bill includes a federal ban on any hemp product containing more than 0.4 milligrams of THC per container.
“If nothing changes, every product we sell will be illegal — including CBD lotion and oil,” said co-founder and CEO Eric Zipperle. “CBD oil and the people who rely on it could be considered criminals.”
Zipperle said the ban would effectively reclassify the company’s entire product line as Schedule I narcotics.
“Everything we make would be a Schedule I narcotic, which is equivalent to heroin,” he said.
Cornbread Hemp was founded in 2018 after the Farm Bill championed by Sen. Mitch McConnell legalized hemp products containing less than 0.3% Delta-9 THC. Now, Zipperle says McConnell led the effort to ban them. McConnell argued the industry has become a loophole allowing children access to intoxicating hemp products.
Zipperle disputes that characterization, noting that 60% of Cornbread’s customers are 66 or older. Among the employees worried about their future is packer Derek Martin.
“I love our products — it’s one of the reasons I work here,” Martin said, adding that many customers depend on them for sleep or PTSD relief.
Cornbread Hemp’s other co-founder has spent the last several days in Washington, D.C., lobbying lawmakers to revise the bill. Zipperle said the company is pushing for regulatory standards instead of prohibition. That includes a 5-milligram THC-per-serving cap, a 21-and-over age limit — already required in Kentucky — and federal safety regulations.
The company is focusing its efforts on U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the FDA.
“He has the ability to shepherd this legislation through,” Zipperle said.
For Cornbread Hemp, a national solution rather than state by state changes is critical because the company sells products across the country. But Zipperle said he believes the chance of success is “50–50,” calling that possibility “terrifying.”
Without a change in the law, Cornbread Hemp says its entire product line will be illegal by next year.
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