What the November 12 Hemp Ban Actually Changes (and Where We Stand)

There is a date worth marking on your calendar: November 12, 2026. That is when a new federal definition of hemp, written into law as Section 781, takes effect. You have probably seen the headlines. A lot of them are built to scare you. This one is not.

We have made real CBD since 2013, out of a basement in Rockford, Michigan, back when almost nobody knew what CBD was. We have watched this industry grow up, and we have watched a loophole turn parts of it into something it was never meant to be. So we want to do what the headlines rarely do: tell you exactly what is changing, who it targets, how it affects the products you buy from us, and what we are doing about it. Straight, no spin.

What Section 781 actually does

On November 12, 2025, Congress passed Section 781, a one-page rewrite of how “hemp” is defined under federal law. It takes effect one year later, on November 12, 2026. It changes two numbers that quietly decide what is legal.

For the plant: the limit stays at 0.3% total THC by dry weight, but it now counts THCA and other cannabinoids with similar effects. That closes a workaround that let growers sell high-potency material designed to convert to THC later.

For finished products: a new, hard ceiling of 0.4mg of total THC per container. Not per serving. Per container. The whole bottle, jar, or package is the unit. Synthetic cannabinoids are excluded from the legal definition entirely.

That second number is the one that changes everything.

The loophole this closes (and why we never used it)

Here is the part the scary headlines skip. The old rule measured THC as a percentage of weight. Percentages can be gamed. Make the product heavier, and you can legally pack in more actual THC.

Run the math. A 60-gram gummy at 0.3% by weight can legally hold up to 180mg of THC. So a “hemp” gummy carrying 10mg of THC, the kind of strength you would get from a licensed dispensary, was not even close to the legal ceiling. That is how intoxicating products ended up on gas station shelves wearing a “hemp” label.

We are a Michigan company. In Michigan, intoxicating THC products, including gummies and beverages, were only ever legal inside licensed dispensaries, under real oversight. The loophole let those same products skip the dispensary system completely. That was never right, and we never played that game. Made By Hemp has always been a CBD wellness company, not a dispensary in disguise.

So when Section 781 closes that loophole, we are not losing a business model. We never had that one.

Why this still affects real CBD, including some of ours

Now the honest part, because you deserve it.

That 0.4mg-per-container ceiling is so tight that it does not only catch the loophole products. It also catches legitimate full-spectrum CBD. Full-spectrum products keep the natural trace of THC that comes with the whole hemp plant, far under the old limit, but a full bottle can still hold much more than 0.4mg in total. Under the new rule, that is enough to make it federally unlawful.

That includes some of our own full-spectrum products. We are not going to pretend otherwise. A law broad enough to stop a 180mg gas-station gummy is also broad enough to stop a wellness tincture that has never gotten anyone high. That is exactly why we are paying attention, and why we are speaking up.

Where Made By Hemp stands

We are not going anywhere. Here is what that looks like in practice.

We are adapting our lineup. Where a full-spectrum product is affected, we are moving toward broad-spectrum, which removes the THC while keeping the other compounds from the plant, and toward CBD isolate, which is THC-free. You will still get real CBD from the people who have made it carefully since 2013. The label may change. The standards will not.

We are backing the fix. There is still time before November 12, 2026, and there are real efforts in Congress to repair this without throwing out legitimate CBD along with the loophole.

What might still change before November 12

Six bills are on the table. They range from a full repeal to a multi-year delay to a complete FDA framework:

• Mace (HR 6209): repeal Section 781 and revert to the 2018 standard.
• Baird and Klobuchar (HR 7024 / S 3686): delay the change three years, to November 2029.
• Griffith (HR 7212): build a full FDA framework with registration, labeling, and serving caps.
• Wyden (S 3474): set a 5mg-per-serving standard under the FDA.
• Barr (Lawful Hemp Protection Act): raise the threshold from 0.3% to 1% with alcohol-style distribution.
• Paul, Klobuchar, and Ernst: let states opt out of the federal framework.

Where it stands today: the 2026 Farm Bill markup left Section 781 in place, and these standalone bills face a hard road in a divided Congress. The window is open, but it is narrowing.

If you care about access to real hemp wellness, the most useful things you can do are simple. Call your representatives. Support protections at the state level. And stay close to the brands you trust to do this right.

What this means for you

If you are a Made By Hemp customer, here is the short version. The products built to get you high were never ours. Some of our full-spectrum products are affected, and we are already moving them toward compliant broad-spectrum and isolate versions so you do not lose access to real CBD. We will tell you before anything changes.

We have been here since 2013. We plan to be here long after November 12, 2026.

Stay ahead of it. Join our email list to be the first to know as products change and as the law moves, and shop our current lineup while it is here.