Indiana Attorney General Fights Hemp Delay Written by Minnesota Senator

# Indiana Attorney General Fights Hemp Delay Written by Minnesota Senator

**GREAT LAKES, August 6, 2026:** Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita co-led a bipartisan letter from 35 state and territorial attorneys general on Tuesday urging congressional leaders to reject a one-month delay of the federal hemp ban, a delay drawn from legislation written by Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Illinois and Ohio signed the letter. Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin did not, leaving the six Great Lakes states publicly divided over a federal deadline all of them will absorb in November.

The letter, addressed to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, asks Congress to reject "any effort to delay, repeal, suspend, or weaken" the redefinition of hemp scheduled to take effect November 12, according to Marijuana Moment, which obtained the text. Its argument is administrative rather than moral: states have spent seven months rewriting statutes and enforcement postures to match the coming federal definition, and reopening the loophole would produce "renewed litigation, inconsistent enforcement, regulatory uncertainty, increased youth access to intoxicating products, and disruption of lawful businesses that have already adjusted their operations." The letter names Michigan and Ohio among states that have already moved to align.

Rokita said in a statement that Congress "should not bow to the special interests that exploited a loophole in federal law," and told lawmakers to "reject the delay, keep your promise and let the law take effect." Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin led the coalition, with Rokita joined as co-lead by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez.

The delay the attorneys general are fighting originated in their region. Klobuchar announced August 3 that the hemp provision in the Senate's continuing resolution is based on her bipartisan Hemp Planting Predictability Act, introduced with Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Jeff Merkley of Oregon and negotiated with Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana. The provision would push the ban to December 11 while banning synthetic hemp derivatives outright on the original date. "Brewers, farmers, small businesses, and customers in Minnesota have made clear that the federal ban on hemp products will be devastating," Klobuchar said in a news release. Sen. Tina Smith, also of Minnesota, said the original ban "was ill-advised and would have hurt both hemp farmers and Minnesota breweries alike." Klobuchar's own press release names the bill the Hemp Planting Predictability Act; several outlets carrying the story, including KAXE, have rendered it as the Hemp Planning Predictability Act.

Sen. Ted Budd of North Carolina filed an amendment August 3 to strip the extension from the spending bill and has since drawn nine cosponsors, with Sens. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana indicating support, according to Marijuana Moment. The vehicle carrying the delay, H.R. 6500, cleared a procedural vote August 3. Accounts of its status since then conflict: The Drinks Business reported August 4 that the Senate had passed the measure, while Marijuana Moment and The Indiana Lawyer described final passage as still pending. The House passed its own continuing resolution in July with no hemp provision.

Minnesota moved in the opposite direction from the attorneys general on the same week. The state's 2026 cannabis omnibus took effect August 1, allowing hemp retailers to sell beverages in child-resistant, resealable bottles of at least 750 milliliters containing 17 or more servings, each serving capped at 5mg of THC plus up to 400mg of nonintoxicating cannabinoids, the Star Tribune reported. The change reverses a prior single-package size limit and opens a wine-bottle format for home consumption. A provision removing the bar on one owner holding both a cannabis and a hemp license took effect the same day.

In Michigan, which regulates cannabinoids by intoxicating effect rather than source and takes no position in the letter, industry response focused on the shortness of the reprieve. "This is certainly good news," Blain Bechtold, president of iHemp Michigan, told MITechNews. "But it only gives us a small reprieve of one month." Bechtold said his members support age restrictions, child-resistant packaging and labeling rules, and that the stop-start federal timeline has left manufacturers, distributors and retailers unable to plan inventories into the holiday season, with the uncertainty "almost as damaging as the proposed restrictions themselves."

Illinois faces a timing problem the extension would not solve. Public Act 104-463 repeals the Industrial Hemp Act and replaces it with the Illinois Hemp Act on November 12, the same date as the federal change, according to the Illinois Department of Agriculture. If Congress moves the federal date to December 11 and Springfield does not act, Illinois law would be stricter than federal law for roughly a month. Wisconsin's intoxicating hemp provisions carry a trigger repeal tied to the federal ban and face the same unanswered question. In Ohio, Attorney General Andy Wilson's motion to stay the July 13 preliminary injunction that lets ten hemp beverage companies keep selling remains undecided three weeks after filing.

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*Not legal advice. Regulatory status changes frequently and sources sometimes disagree on effective dates; verify against primary sources before acting.*