{"id":141054,"date":"2026-03-17T21:41:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T21:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/141054\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T21:41:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T21:41:33","slug":"pa-hemp-leaders-form-guild-urge-clear-rules-amid-policy-clash-with-cannabis-law-enforcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/141054\/","title":{"rendered":"Pa. hemp leaders form guild, urge clear rules amid policy clash with cannabis, law enforcement"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story originally appeared on WITF<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

A Lancaster business owner who produces and sells hemp-based beverages is fed up with the legal patchwork of state and federal rules governing his products, and he\u2019s angry that bigger players in the world of cannabis could unfairly benefit from proposed solutions.\n<\/p>\n

That frustration prompted\u00a0Jake Sitler<\/a>, co-owner of Endo Cafe on North Prince Street, to form the Pennsylvania Hemp & Cannabis Guild to unite growers and fellow retailers under a single advocacy banner. His group has about 30 members statewide.\n<\/p>\n

Sitler has worked to draft a regulatory framework with policymakers in Harrisburg for the past few years, citing his own experience of using hemp as a recovery tool after he was struck by a car in 2018 while cycling.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you look at it as a loophole or a regulatory gray area or whatever, I\u2019ve lived within the letter of the law,\u201d Sitler said during an interview at his cafe on North Prince Street in downtown Lancaster.\n<\/p>\n

He said many of Pennsylvania\u2019s 50-100 legitimate hemp business owners \u2014 mostly retailers, but including farmers and processors \u2014 want new regulations to clear up any public confusion over the industry and help eliminate bad actors who are tarnishing the market with misleading products. Better regulations, Sitler predicted, would rapidly grow the number of hemp brands in Pennsylvania.\n<\/p>\n

Hemp-derived cannabinoids (as in THC, the main intoxicating compound in cannabis, and CBD, which doesn\u2019t produce a high) could amount to a roughly $791 million to $1.4 billion market in Pennsylvania, according to estimates submitted in July to the PA Hemp Steering Committee by Beau Whitney, of Oregon-based hemp and cannabis research group Whitney Economics.\n<\/p>\n

Compare that to Pennsylvania\u2019s medicinal cannabis sales, which were roughly $1.7 billion in 2024, according to the\u00a0Department of Health<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Sitler said he would welcome the legalization of recreational cannabis use. Still, he\u2019s concerned that legalization would prop up large-scale cannabis companies that could squeeze out small hemp businesses like his own.\n<\/p>\n

Among the hemp guardrails Sitler\u2019s group asked state officials to consider are rules that his business already follows, including restricting sales to people age 21 and older, banning advertisements that target children and requiring regular, thorough product testing.\n<\/p>\n

Those guidelines could be adopted swiftly by Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s administration, Sitler said, giving the General Assembly more time to draft a comprehensive set of laws governing cannabis production and use.\n<\/p>\n

Shapiro\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment.\n<\/p>\n

Legal limbo<\/p>\n

Marijuana is strictly regulated under the state\u2019s medical cannabis program, adopted in 2016, and is only available at medical dispensaries with a physician\u2019s prescription. Meanwhile, hemp products, like edibles, seltzers and smokeables, are available to buy online or at many gas stations and other brick-and-mortar stores that do not require a license.
Two products from the same plant, delivering the same high through the same intoxicants \u2014 commonly delta-8 or -9 THC. But hemp doesn\u2019t operate within the same heavily monitored legal framework as marijuana.
As long as a hemp product contains less than 0.3% THC in dry weight when the deriving plant is harvested, it fits the legal parameters outlined in the 2018 Farm Bill. It is legally considered marijuana, and thus illegal to sell for recreational purposes, if it surpasses that threshold.\n<\/p>\n

\u2018Politics happened\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Aug. 6, Sitler had a face-to-face meeting with officials at the Department of Agriculture, the Pennsylvania State Police and the Liquor Control Board, at which he hoped to convince the agencies they need clearer regulations regarding hemp\n<\/p>\n

Each currently maintains its own guidelines \u2014 the Ag Department adheres to federal law, PSP considers any THC-containing substance to be illegal, and the LCB issued an advisory in 2023 that blocked all THC products, including hemp, from being sold in licensed alcohol distributors.\n<\/p>\n

The meeting didn\u2019t result in any progress. Instead, as Sitler described during the first Hemp & Cannabis Guild call last month, \u201cPolitics happened.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNo government agency wanted to take an official stance as to where things were going or where things were heading,\u201d Sitler said.\n<\/p>\n

Reached for comment, a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture cited federal THC limits in a statement, before noting, \u201cNo new hemp or food safety regulations are in progress at the Department of Agriculture regarding these products.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

A spokesman for PSP said all THC products are illegal; the LCB did not respond to a request for comment.\n<\/p>\n

Moving forward, Sitler said he will continue to advocate in Harrisburg. He\u2019s trying to get an audience with Shapiro\u2019s staff.\n<\/p>\n

One of the hemp industry\u2019s biggest supporters in the Pennsylvania Senate is Republican Caucus Chair Kristin Phillips-Hill from York County. She helped organize Sitler\u2019s meeting with the three state agencies, along with Democratic Sen. James Malone of Lancaster County.\n<\/p>\n

Phillips-Hill said she and the Sitlers are \u201ccontinuing to explore what\u2019s possible under current law and how the Sitlers can expand their operations here,\u201d referring to Endo\u2019s planned new facility in York County.\n<\/p>\n

Tom Bobrowicz, a board member of the Hemp & Cannabis Guild and owner of BF Extracts in Erie County, said in an interview that he was disappointed by the lack of substantive response from the state agencies.\n<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also speculated that the major cannabis companies in Pennsylvania, such as Jushi Inc., Curaleaf or Cresco Labs, could have the inside track to meet behind closed doors with lawmakers as they seek to exclude smaller hemp producers from the market, especially if lawmakers pass recreational marijuana legislation that favors large-scale producers over smaller businesses.\n<\/p>\n

Bobrowicz said it\u2019s difficult to operate his hemp-growing business without clear regulations from the state, and now he\u2019s uncertain about what the future holds for the industry.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve invested my life into it,\u201d Bobrowicz said. \u201cWe\u2019ve spent every dime we have building this business.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Bobrowicz brought many of his concerns to his state senator, Dan Laughlin, a Republican who has introduced several proposals to legalize recreational marijuana use.\n<\/p>\n

Asked about hemp policy changes, Laughlin\u2019s spokesman, Chris Carroll, pointed to the senator\u2019s stalled legislation that would create a Cannabis Control Board that, among other responsibilities, would set testing, labeling and product strength rules for hemp products.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBy putting these standards in place, the board will help keep consumers safe, support public health, and make sure businesses are operating on a fair playing field, while also tackling the problems caused by unregulated hemp products,\u201d Carroll said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story originally appeared on WITF. A Lancaster business owner who produces and sells hemp-based beverages is fed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,14060,64604,3297,53421,5768],"class_list":["post-141054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-hemp","tag-hemp-production","tag-marijuana","tag-thc","tag-witf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}