Trade group in the U.S. plays with facts when writing a complaint letter to Trump

USHR reacted swiftly when Donald Trump retweeted a CBD video. The group responded within days with a letter in which it assumed the voice of the “hemp industry” and whispered into Dear Leader’s fuzzy ears.  

USHR is not hemp. The gray market is mostly about synthetic THC, a hazy substance, and it’s built on an unreliable regulatory system. This ugly child is the result of greed and cynicism.

USHR is centered around CBD producers. Many of them feed the hemp industry downstream, which intoxicates. About one third of these companies are selling hemp products that intoxicate. These include delta-8 THC edibles (derived from hemp), vapes and drinks. They deliver synthetic THC through loopholes in the “Hemp Farm Bill” of 2018.

The CBD industry (and, no doubt, the USHR) has benefitted from the intoxicating effects of hemp. We’ve written about it — and warned about it — for years.

‘Dear Sir’

In a letter sent to Trump on October 6, the author wrote: “By enacting the 2018 Farm Bill as law, you have ushered in an era of new growth for the American hemp sector.”  We are thankful and still hopeful that the hemp industry worth $28,4 billion that you made possible can be saved by your influence.

It is true that the letter looks nauseating at first glance, but the real problem lies in the exaggeration of the claims and the deliberate manipulation. It never once mentions CBD, cannabinoids, or intoxicating products, employing “hemp” exclusively as though the word alone could sanitize the reality USHR is pimping for — a dodgy intoxicant market built on unregulated and potentially dangerous substances and products.

It’s not an accident. It’s deliberate branding. USHR uses the name “hemp” to cover up a sub-industry that is twisted and tainted.  This doesn’t just confuse the public — it distorts policy debates, scares off investors, and hands opponents of hemp an easy talking point. The result is guilt-by association, which undermines credibility in the “true hemp’ sectors.

False and damaging 

This letter says that Congress is “close to passing” a hemp-ban which “would wipe out 95% the industry”. That’s false. Congress has not yet banned hemp. USHR has cultivated and embraced a hemp monster unregulated, intoxicating that lawmakers are trying to deal with. Fiber or grain, the two most promising hemp sectors, are not at risk.

Although the figure of $28,4 billion is a fictitious number, “95%” could still be true.  The vast majority of this market consists intoxicating substances that would be eliminated or curtailed if the definition for hemp was tightened. It’s not destruction. It’s a way to clean up an intoxicant business that has gotten out of hand.

The real hemp industry is damaged by even mentioning “hemp” with the word “ban”. Each time this framing occurs, the notion that the whole industry is at risk or illegal is planted. This blurs the line between gray-market, intoxicants and legitimate producers of agricultural products and industrial goods. It lumps farmers, food producers and building contractors with the gummy traders. 

Origin Story

This framing was not done by accident. This is a reflection of USHR’s development over the last five years. USHR’s US Hemp Authority, USHR’s certification division, focused from 2018 to 2023 on CBD wellness, grain and personal care products. The certification of intoxicating cannabinoid-based products was explicitly prohibited. The CBD boom of 2019 turned out to be a bust. Hemp cannabinoid manufacturers shifted their focus on the producers and sellers of illegal intoxicants made from CBD.

 USHA began a program for “Adult Use Hemp Product certification” in 2024. In a matter of hours, the organization which previously rejected intoxicating hemp products began to accept them according to a completely different standard. The main source of revenue was intoxicating cannabis. 

Remove banks, trade groups, service providers, and other non-hemp companies from USHR’s current roster, and about 60 members remain—nearly all in CBD. This membership includes roughly 15 companies that market products that deliver 5–10 mg of THC per serving – enough to get you high.

Meanwhile, fiber and grain industries—fundamentals of a true hemp industry—are barely visible within the organization. The industries are occasionally mentioned in documents, but there is no serious public or legislative advocacy. 

Indefensible

In a letter addressed to Trump, USHR states that it “has done the right thing in self-regulation”. It is an ironic situation. It is ironic that the group claims responsibility for a market marked by an absence of proper oversight. The voluntary certification program is a tool for marketing, not regulation. 

To date, there is no known public record that USHR or USHA has ever suspended, sanctioned, or publicly criticized a member for non-conformance — either during the early CBD era, or after the organization embraced intoxicating hemp. Even as some members’ products become indistinguishable from those in regulated cannabis outlets, their so-called “self-regulation” remains all on paper – a flimsy shield to ward off scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators, allowing business as usual.

USHR’s power is now derived from a sector of cannabinoids that has its existence owed to the intoxicating effects of hemp. That’s who they’re fighting for — not fiber, not grain, and not the long-term credibility of hemp as an agricultural commodity. They use the term “hemp” to represent the entire sector and thereby appropriate its legitimacy, history, and credibility in order to promote a narrow illegitimate business agenda. It may suit their short-term commercial interests. They are not the right people to set federal hemp policies.