Hemp ban in government spending bill could destroy the industry

In a warehouse off Route 19 in Washington, Pa., the air is dense with the scent of marijuana as workers in white lab coats and black gloves carefully weigh out one gram of weed per baggie.

Working under fluorescent lights, they listen to music and chat as distillation machines whir at Choice Extraction, a cannabis production lab.

For these employees and the hundreds of thousands of others in the hemp industry, an amendment tucked into the 161-page federal budget bill that passed last month could end it all in a year’s time. Worries include not only the loss of jobs but the decimation of a roughly $30 billion industry.

The THC beverage industry, too, has been exploding, garnering more than $1 billion in profits last year and expected to increase. Many consumers — especially women — have