A recently-signed federal law that threatens to tank Minnesota's burgeoning hemp industry is back in the spotlight.
If the federal ban actually goes into effect, it would have a devastating impact on the state. That's according to lawmakers and those in the hemp business who gathered this week at the state capitol.
They're saying they will spend this next year trying to reverse the ban, if it does go into effect, it would basically wipe out all the work that's been done in Minnesota since legalization.
Lindsay Port is a State Senator (DFL) who was responsible for getting a bill passed in 2023 in this now $230 million industry.
"The winter sports industry in Minnesota is a $230 million industry," says Port. "If Congress told us tomorrow that we can't snowmobile anymore, people would lose their minds."
The measure passed in Washington to reopen the government after a record-long shutdown, distinguishes industrial hemp grain and fiber from cannabinoid-producing varieties for the first time.
That means it also puts the market for intoxicating hemp-derived products on notice because it closes a loophole for those products. There is now a limited window to operate unless Congress and the industry deliver a real, science-based regulatory solution in the next 12 months when it goes into effect.
"This industry is not a fringe market. It is a legitimate, job-creating, fast growing, community serving sector that deserves to be supported, regulated and protected, not erased," says Ryan Kopperrud with Wild State Cider.
He says the state has created a well-regulated hemp business that brings millions of dollars to the state's economy, and employs several thousand people - a number they were expecting to grow significantly, and now is on the verge of collapse.
Since Congress legalized hemp in 2018, America has seen both the promise and the pitfalls of this emerging industry.
What began as an agricultural opportunity has evolved into an environment the 2018 Farm Bill never saw coming — with confusing laws, inconsistent enforcement, and a marketplace overflowing with products that have left regulators and consumers alike uncertain where hemp ends and marijuana begins.
But the political climate has shifted sharply. Lawmakers are trying to rein in a sector that has outpaced the policy meant to govern it.
The result is uncertainty for farmers, fear for manufacturers, and unease among consumers who no longer know which products they can trust. It's a moment of reckoning nationwide for what previously had been a state-by-state, mostly unregulated industry.