First, it was Colorado’s majority-Democrat legislature that weighed whether to open the floodgates to dangerous, intoxicating hemp-based products. It would have compounded the damage inflicted on our kids by legalized pot. Fortunately, the lawmakers behind that reckless attempt couldn’t muster enough votes as the 2026 legislative session wound down last spring.

Now, a move is afoot in the Republican-controlled Congress to stall a much-needed federal crackdown on high-potency hemp that was enacted just last fall. At the behest of the Trump administration, a delay in implementing the crackdown was inserted into a stopgap government funding bill. The move has divided ruling Republicans, some of whom mounted an unsuccessful effort late last week to strip the delay from the bill.

The upshot will be to put off by a month the November implementation of the federal ban on most hemp-derived, high-potency products. More troubling still, the hemp-products lobby that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars massaging Congress into backing down is bragging it hopes to pivot the delay into a reversal of the ban in the guise of “regulation.”

Both of Colorado’s Democratic U.S. senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, voted with the Senate majority — and the Trump administration — to delay the ban. Disappointing, but not surprising.

Meanwhile, the role a Colorado hemp-industry figure might have played in coaxing the White House to move against the ban, as detailed in an in-depth Gazette report last week, only reminds Coloradans of their state’s epic struggle with THC-laced products. 

Our state has paid a high price thanks to its 2012 legalization of retail marijuana. THC’s role inducing assorted psychoses, especially in young people, is substantiated by mounting data from a growing body of medical research. THC has been found in the bloodstream of an alarming percentage of teen suicides in Colorado in recent years, as state vital statistics make clear. And THC has been lethal to naive Colorado teens on our hazardous roadways.

Colorado’s ordeal should serve as a red flag for Congress. If it gives in to the hemp lobby and reverses the federal ban, expect state limits like Colorado’s to fall by the wayside.

Allowing high-THC hemp beverages and other hemp products — capped under state law at 1.75 milligrams of THC per serving — would create a grave threat to public health and safety. So would letting such products be sold at liquor shops and convenience stores, as proposed in last spring’s derailed state legislation. 

As it is, high-THC edibles and drinks, despite their danger, already are available at Colorado pot shops; they’re just derived from marijuana instead of its close cousin hemp. There is no good reason to add to what is already an overdose of intoxicants on Colorado shelves.

That’s why Congress’ vote last year to ban most high-potency hemp products was a stride for kids everywhere. And, by the way, Colorado’s prohibition in state law still allows producers to market high-potency products derived from hemp — so long as they are exported to other states. It’s another reason for Congress to hold fast to its November 2025 federal ban.

The federal crackdown’s supporters reportedly aren’t giving up despite last week’s setback, and that’s hopeful news. When the Senate returns from its recess in September, supporters of the ban promise a move to reinstate the federal ban’s original implementation in November.

Adults don’t need yet another way to obtain a legal high — certainly not given the peril it poses to our kids, not to mention our highways. Let’s keep the federal ban on track, supporting efforts by Colorado and other states to keep high-potency hemp off the shelves and further away from children.