Jacqueline Collins
Audio By Carbonatix
The bill to reopen the government included a federal ban on intoxicating hemp. While regulating the intoxicating hemp industry is necessary, a complete ban has unintentionally swept up non-intoxicating CBD products, too, putting life-changing therapies for vulnerable families at risk.
In 2013, a group of parents founded Colorado-based Realm of Caring to give hope to children for whom conventional medicines had failed. One founding catalyst was the journey of Zaki, a child who suffered relentless seizures and found no relief in usual treatments. CBD transformed him from hospice to health. He wouldn’t be here without CBD access, and neither would thousands of others.
For years, hemp-derived CBD has been the difference between despair and hope. Our research finds that with CBD, caregivers of children with epilepsy report fewer emergency visits, fewer missed school days and significantly lower caregiver burden. For children navigating anxiety, difficulty concentrating, or chronic pain, hemp-derived CBD has proven to be a meaningful tool. These gains aren’t theoretical. They are daily, lived realities for families who finally found something that works.
A federal ban throws all of that progress into chaos. It would severely restrict access to legal, affordable hemp-derived CBD products, even for those using non-intoxicating, rigorously tested formulations. Families who rely on full-spectrum CBD, which often includes trace, non-intoxicating amounts of THC essential to the product’s effectiveness, would face uncertainty, disruption and harm. Kids whose seizures had been reduced, whose quality of life improved, would suddenly be left at risk again. Some would be forced to return to pharmaceutical regimens that had already failed them, or to navigate inconsistent and often restrictive state cannabis programs. Others would lose access entirely.
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This ban is a sweeping rollback that undermines more than a decade of work by Realm of Caring and countless medical advocates. Intoxicating hemp must be regulated. It should not be sold online without oversight. Products must be tested, labeled and age-gated. But banning hemp outright would destroy an entire industry and, more importantly, make the non-intoxicating hemp products families depend on unavailable.
A policy intended to curb unregulated intoxicating products should not punish the very people who have done everything right. This includes parents who followed the science, sought safe alternatives, and finally found relief for their children.
Luckily, we have a year until the ban goes into effect, so these patients won’t immediately lose this access. We must fight for a solution that protects people who rely on CBD, the jobs created by the industry, while also regulating the intoxicating hemp market.
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