Critics are raising the alarm about a federal ban on many hemp products that was slipped into the funding bill that ended the record-long government shutdown on Wednesday. They say it will strictly clamp down on hemp products from Oregon and across the nation, including everything from CBD gummies, drinks and oils used to relieve pain, anxiety and sleepless nights to hemp-made construction materials such as insulation.

That, they say, will deal a devastating blow not only to consumers, but to farmers, manufacturers and retailers and the economies of states such as Oregon, where the value of hemp production in 2023 reached $126 million.

Much of it is used to create products with the non-psychoactive ingredient cannabidiol, also known as CBD, that some studies suggest may help with chronic pain, anxiety, insomnia and addiction.

“Advocates for this language that’s in the bill will tell you this won’t affect CBD,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, told his colleagues during a floor discussion earlier this week. “Every expert I’ve consulted has said that is exactly wrong. That this will in fact wipe out 95 to 99% of the industry.”

But Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Republican and a chief backer, pushed the provision through to stop “bad actors” from exploiting current law to derive another compound from hemp: THC. The THC is then manufactured into “candy-like products” and sold to children at gas stations and convenience stores across the country, McConnell said.

Earlier this year, Oregon regulators released a report that found most hemp flowers and gummies sold in the state were actually high-potency pot. The analysis specifically raised concerns about packaging “marketed in a manner appealing to minors.”

Many hemp-derived products with THC have between two to 10 or even more milligrams of THC, but the new law bans hemp-derived products with more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per package. McConnell said the law will preserve and protect farmers and “the growing hemp industry,” estimated to be worth $28 billion nationwide.

Therein lies the dispute.

Sen. Rand Paul, who like McConnell is a Republican elected by the people of Kentucky, disagrees with McConnell. He told colleagues Monday that the McConnell-backed restrictions on hemp are “designed to regulate the hemp industry to death.”

Beau Whitney, chief economist at the Portland-based hemp and cannabis analyst group Whitney Economics, agrees with Paul. He said because of a “fundamental way in the way the federal government defines hemp” and the new THC limits, the new law will result in “the complete elimination” of hemp-derived CBD products. He said it’ll also thwart the production of hemp food products like protein powders, hemp-derived THC drinks, construction materials, auto parts and textiles.

“This has sweeping implications,” said Whitney, who met Thursday with staff from the House Agriculture Committee in Washington, D.C.

That’s if the changes aren’t amended by November 2026, which is when the new rules are set to take effect. But Whitney worries that damage to the industry may already be done.

“A lot of this creates uncertainty, if you plant it in the spring, will it be legal in the fall?” Whitney said. “So farmers are no longer interested in growing this because there’s too much risk.”

Last year, Oregon farmers planted about 2,000 acres of hemp, Whitney said.

Many in the industry are willing to accept more regulations, especially as members of Congress have expressed increasing concern, said Courtney Moran, a Portland attorney who has lobbied in the past for farmers and manufacturers and now represents clients in hemp cases.

“The majority want bad actors out, who are putting out products that are not safe or that are marketing to children,” Moran said.

But Moran contends that the law as passed needs to be amended so it doesn’t “overcompensate by putting in such severe definitions or policies that the good products” are forbidden.

Moran said she’s optimistic.

“I don’t think this is game over,” Moran said. “It’s a wake-up call.”

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