Matt Swain: North Carolina’s Hemp Loophole Is a Kid Safety Problem

Walk into almost any gas station in North Carolina and you’ll find gummies and vapes in bright, candy-colored packaging with names designed to appeal to children. They look harmless, but they aren’t. These are hemp-derived THC products, and right now, North Carolina has no age restrictions on their sale, meaning children can legally buy them.

Most parents and guardians don’t know this, and the people selling these products are counting on that.  

These are not CBD wellness products. They contain delta-8 THC, a cannabinoid chemically similar to the delta-9 THC found in marijuana. Many products on the market now include a growing list of synthetic cannabinoids produced in labs, more potent than anything found in nature. Independent testing has found pesticides, heavy metals, and industrial solvents on products pulled straight from store shelves.

This isn’t a hypothetical danger. NC Poison Control has specifically warned parents about these products because of their deceptive packaging and accidental exposures among children, especially those under 13. These exposures have been on the rise here in North Carolina. Emergency rooms across the state are seeing patients who don’t know what they consumed, including children who thought they were eating candy. 

How did they get here? The same way a lot of policy failures happen, with an unintended consequence that nobody fixed fast enough. The 2018 federal Farm Bill opened the door to hemp cultivation, a legitimate agricultural goal, but accidentally created a gray market for intoxicating products with no guardrails. No age verification, no potency limits, and no testing requirements. North Carolina’s own advisory council on cannabis recently described the result as a “wild west” marketplace where products are sold with no uniform standards for manufacturing, testing, labeling, or age verification.  

Governor Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson have both spoken out against these products. And Congress, to its credit, passed a provision last year capping THC levels in hemp products, a real step toward closing the loophole. That ban is set to take effect in November 2026.

However, the real problem is that the federal fix is already under pressure. Some members of Congress want to reopen the loophole, and that cannot happen. The progress made toward closing this gray market must not be undone by industry lobbying or legislative backroom deals. Congress created this problem when it passed the 2018 Farm Bill, and it has an obligation to finish the job of fixing it. 

Children are already ending up in emergency rooms after eating what they thought were regular gummies, and NC Poison Control has documented rising accidental exposures. Every month that the loophole stays open, or gets reopened, is another month that products with no age verification, no potency limits, and no testing requirements remain on gas station counters.

North Carolina has no regulated cannabis framework of any kind, which means no state-level standards, no enforcement authority, and no backup if Washington falters. North Carolinians spent roughly $3 billion on illegal marijuana in 2022 alone, making us the second-largest illicit cannabis market in the country. That’s precisely why the federal fix must hold – there is no state safety net waiting to catch what Congress drops. 

This is not a partisan issue. Protecting children from unregulated, unlabeled intoxicants is something every member of Congress should be able to agree on. North Carolina’s congressional delegation should make clear to their colleagues that reopening this loophole is not acceptable. The question is whether they will act before more North Carolina kids are harmed. 

The loophole needs to stay closed. Congress must make sure it does. 

By Matt Swain 

County commissioner Elect 

Farmer and Educator