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Rand Paul supports Senate move to delay hemp ban but wants more action
‘Hemp and cannabis is Kentucky’s agricultural future’ says Cornbread Hemp co-founder
Kentucky was once America’s largest hemp producers. Is hemp and cannabis the future cash crop for Kentucky agriculture?
Matt Stone/Courier Journal
A proposed one-month delay in implementing a federal ban on most hemp products that’s currently moving through Congress is a good step, according to U.S. Sen. Rand Paul — “but we still need a solution.”
“Kentucky does regulate hemp. I want the farmers to be able to produce it. I want people that choose to do it. I don’t think it’s somehow more moral to take a Percocet than it is to take a hemp gummy to sleep at night,” Paul said at an Aug. 11 event in Louisville. “… I think we ought to allow it. And adults ought to make these decisions, not the government.”
Paul’s comments came after the U.S. Senate approved a funding measure over the weekend that included language delaying the deadline for the pending federal ban on most hemp products. The ban, included as a provision of a bill that ended a lengthy federal government shutdown in 2025, will go into effect on Dec. 11 instead of Nov. 12 if approved by the House in September.
The delay would give lawmakers more time after the upcoming election, set for Nov. 3, to determine next steps for the industry, which has proliferated among farmers in Kentucky in recent years.
It’s an issue that has divided Congress. Led by U.S. Sen. Ted Budd of North Carolina, more than two dozen senators last week attempted to remove the language delaying the hemp ban from the federal funding bill — Budd’s amendment was defeated on a 61-32 vote.
Paul is a hemp supporter. He sponsored a bipartisan bill that would have allowed states that have already set hemp regulation standards, such as Kentucky, to supersede federal rules, though it has not advanced since being filed in April. U.S. Rep. Andy Barr has also joined with U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, a Minnesota Democrat, on legislation that would regulate hemp products nationally.
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, meanwhile, has said he supports hemp production for nonintoxicating products but is concerned current federal laws have allowed unsafe products that are often marketed to children to hit the shelves of stores around the country. McConnell has previously tried to close the 2018 loophole that allowed hemp-based products with intoxicating qualities to be sold but has been absent from the conversation in recent weeks as he works to recover after a lengthy hospitalization.
Hemp is a major crop in Kentucky. In 2025, according to the Department of Agriculture, it was grown on 4,700 acres around the state. Figures from the department also found more than 97% of hemp grown around Kentucky that year was used in floral and cannabinoid products, the vast majority of which would be banned under pending legislation.
Cornbread Hemp, a company founded in Louisville in 2019, held a rally earlier in August to drum up support with the ban then set to take effect in 100 days. In a statement after the vote, cofounder Eric Zipperle said the Senate’s move is “the clearest signal yet that Washington wants to regulate hemp, not eliminate it.”
Reach Lucas Aulbach at [email protected]. Reach Keely Doll at [email protected].
