What changes for hemp shops on 12 November 2026

Sources reviewed as of 4 September 2026

This page is a factual summary of published law with sources. It is not legal advice. We are a directory, not a law firm. Every claim below links to the statute, the agency or a named legal analysis, with the date we read it. If a decision turns on any of this, take it to a lawyer who practises in your state.

The federal definition of hemp changes on 12 November 2026. That part is already law — it was enacted on 12 November 2025 and the statute set its effective date a year to the day later. Most of the shops in this directory are still selling as though the old rule applies, because it does, until 12 November 2026.

We compiled this because nobody was telling shop owners straight. What follows is what the documents say.

The two numbers that matter

Raw material

0.3%

total THC on a dry weight basis — and from 12 November 2026 total expressly includes THCA. Under the old test only delta-9 counted, which is the entire reason THCA flower existed as a category.

Finished products

0.4 mg

total THC per container — the innermost packaging that directly holds the product. This is the one that reshapes a shelf.

What 0.4 mg per container means concretely

An ordinary 10 mg gummy is 25× over the limit — and that is one gummy, not a bag.
A 10-count bag of 10 mg gummies is 100 mg in the container. 250× over.
A 300 mg container of edibles is 750× over.
A gram of THCA flower at 20% THCA holds roughly 200 mg of THCA. Put through the same 0.877 conversion the statutes use, that is about 175 mg of total THC — roughly 440× the container limit. An eighth is 3.5 grams, so about three and a half times that again.

These multiples are arithmetic from the 0.4 mg figure, not quotations from the statute. The 0.4 mg figure itself is sourced in the table below.

The federal change, line by line

What	The provision	Source
The law	H.R. 5371 §781, part of the Continuing Resolution and Appropriations package	CRS IF13136 (opens in a new tab)
Enacted	12 November 2025	Perkins Coie, Dec 2025 (opens in a new tab)secondary
Takes effect	12 November 2026 — the effective date the statute sets, one year to the day after enactment	Arnold & Porter, Dec 2025 (opens in a new tab)secondary
How hemp is measured	Total THC — expressly including THCA and other THC isomers, plus any cannabinoid HHS designates as having similar effects. Delta-9 alone is no longer the test.	Arnold & Porter, Dec 2025 (opens in a new tab)secondary
Limit on raw material	0.3% total THC on a dry weight basis	Arnold & Porter, Dec 2025 (opens in a new tab)secondary
Limit on finished products	0.4 mg total THC per container — "container" meaning the innermost packaging that directly holds the product	Perkins Coie, Dec 2025 (opens in a new tab)secondary
Synthetic cannabinoids	Outside the hemp definition entirely	Troutman Pepper, Dec 2025 (opens in a new tab)secondary

Rows marked secondary are law-firm analyses rather than the statutory text. They are kept because they agree with one another and because they explain the change in plainer language than a statute does.

The statute, in its own words

This page used to say we had not read the statutory text ourselves. We have now. 7 U.S.C. § 1639o is the definition the whole change turns on, and it currently carries two versions of the same sentence — the one in force, and the one that replaces it.

In force today
…with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.

Effective 12 November 2026
…with a total tetrahydrocannabinols concentration (including tetrahydrocannabinolic acid) of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.

Two words carry the whole thing: total, and including. A flower that tests under 0.3% delta-9 today can be well over 0.3% once its THCA counts, because THCA is most of what is in it.

On the reported delay

What survives, and what does not

The cap is on total THC per container, so the question for any product is simply how many milligrams are in the package.

Survives the federal cap

Products with non-detectable THC — isolate-based CBD, THC-free distillate
CBD, CBG and CBN products formulated under 0.4 mg total THC per container
Topicals meeting the same per-container arithmetic
Hemp seed, hemp hearts, fibre and grain uses
Everything a shop sells that is not a cannabinoid product at all

Does not, on these numbers

THCA flower and pre-rolls
Delta-8, delta-10, HHC and THCp products
Conventional 5–10 mg edibles and the bags they come in
Most hemp-derived delta-9 beverages
Concentrates, vapes and liquid diamonds
Anything relying on a synthesised cannabinoid

What is genuinely uncertain. The statute directs the FDA to issue guidance, and as of 29 August 2026 the agency had not published it. Whether existing stock can be sold through, how “container” is applied to multi-unit packaging, and what happens to products already in the supply chain on 12 November are open questions on 29 August 2026. Several of the analyses linked above say the same. Anyone telling you they know exactly how this will be enforced is guessing.

The state layer, where it already differs

The federal floor applies everywhere. States can be — and three of these four already are — different from each other on top of it.

North Carolina

pending

HB 328 is pending — not law

The Senate adopted the conference report 37–6 on 2 July 2026. The House has never adopted it: the most recent action is 30 July 2026, re-referred to House Rules, and the floor vote was deferred to November 2026 — that deferral is reported by NC Newsline, not stated in the bill record itself. The bill would move NC to a total-THC standard with the same 0.4 mg per container figure as the federal rule.

NC General Assembly bill history, read 29 August 2026 (November timing: NC Newsline, 4 Aug 2026)

South Carolina

unsettled

Genuinely unsettled

H.3924 would have set a 0.4 mg per container cap. It died on 25 June 2026: the Senate adopted the conference report 27–11 and the House rejected it 28–69 the same day. South Carolina therefore has no dedicated hemp consumables statute — and in its place there is an active prosecution. In Operation “Ganjapreneur” the Attorney General’s office and SLED unsealed indictments on 9 December 2025 against 12 defendants the state describes as the wholesale distributors supplying retail businesses, seizing over 30,000 pounds — 15 tons — of product on 40 narcotics charges. The state’s position is that these products test as illegal under state law whatever their packaging says. A further release on 26 March 2026 named operators of two of those businesses and reported that 261 of the 270 brands tested so far from them had come back positive. We are not going to describe that as either settled or safe.

SC Legislature bill history for H.3924; SC Attorney General and SLED releases on Operation “Ganjapreneur”, read 31 August 2026

Georgia

settled

Already restrictive since 1 October 2024

SB 494 makes it unlawful for any person "to offer for sale at retail the unprocessed flower or leaves of the hemp plant Cannabis sativa L. plant, regardless of the total delta-9-THC concentration in such flower or leaves" — with a carve-out for products containing extracts or derivatives. It also sets total delta-9-THC as (delta-9-THCA × 0.877) + delta-9-THC, and 21+ at retail. Signed 30 April 2024; §14 and §21 took effect 1 July 2024 and the remainder on 1 October 2024.

Signed text of SB 494, Georgia Governor’s office

Tennessee

settled

Licensed retail under the TABC since 1 January 2026

Public Chapter 526 was signed 21 May 2025 and took effect 1 January 2026, moving oversight from the Department of Agriculture to the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission. The TABC states that the Act "defines total THC as (THCA x 0.877) + Δ9-THC", and that products over 0.3% total THC are illegal — the practical effect being that hemp above that line falls outside legal hemp and into the definition of marijuana. THCp and synthetic cannabinoids are prohibited in any amount, and unlicensed sale is a Class A misdemeanor. Gas stations stopped being eligible for a retail licence on 1 January 2026. The two-year certificate-retention duty for retail licensees is in the TABC’s rule 0100-16-.05, not in this FAQ.

Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Hemp FAQs

A note on what we checked. The Georgia and Tennessee entries are sourced to the signed bill text and to the regulator’s own published position respectively — both primary. The North Carolina and South Carolina entries are sourced to the legislatures’ own bill histories, also primary. An earlier draft of this work rested on secondary summaries for Georgia and Tennessee, and two of them turned out to carry figures we could not find in the statute, which is why they were replaced.

If you run a shop

We are a directory and cannot tell you what to do about your inventory. What we can tell you is what the documents say and what we have observed across the certificates we have read.

Reviewed 9 September 2026: Public Law 119-37, section 781, sets 12 November 2026 as the effective date for the changed federal definition of hemp. We have not verified an enacted change to that date. Reported or proposed delays do not change the baseline used on this page.
Know the milligrams per container on everything you stock. Not the percentage, not the potency per serving — the total in the innermost package. That single number decides where each SKU sits.
Your certificates are the document that answers it. Which is worth saying plainly: of 651 certificates we read across this channel, the great majority reported potency. Potency is exactly the figure the new arithmetic turns on. A shop that already publishes its COAs is in a better position to answer questions about its shelf than one that does not.
In Tennessee the certificates are already mandatory. The TABC’s retail rule 0100-16-.05 requires licensees to keep them for two years and produce them on request — that duty is in the rule filing, not the FAQ.
State rules stack on top and they are not the same. Georgia already bars retail sale of unprocessed flower. Tennessee already licenses. North Carolina had a bill in the House and no law on 29 August 2026.

Reviewed 9 September 2026: Public Law 119-37, section 781, sets 12 November 2026 as the effective date for the changed federal definition of hemp. We have not verified an enacted change to that date. Reported or proposed delays do not change the baseline used on this page. Intake policy reviewed 9 September 2026: we accept claims and requests to add a shop, with free ownership verification after review. We respond within 3 business days. Publication follows review of the business and its information; submitting a form does not guarantee a listing or confirm that its products comply with the law.

Sources

Congressional Research Service IF13136 — Changes to the Statutory Definition of Hemp [source] (opens in a new tab)
Perkins Coie — Shutdown Legislation Brings New Hemp Rules (Dec 2025) [source] (opens in a new tab)
Arnold & Porter — Major Changes to Federal Regulation of Hemp-Derived Products (Dec 2025) [source] (opens in a new tab)
Troutman Pepper — Congress Narrows Federal Definition of Hemp (Dec 2025) [source] (opens in a new tab)
Marijuana Moment — Senate votes to delay the hemp restrictions (8 Aug 2026) [source] (opens in a new tab)
Congress.gov — H.R. 7010, a separate standalone bill to delay the hemp provisions (not the CR above) [source] (opens in a new tab)
North Carolina General Assembly — House Bill 328 (2025-2026) bill history [source] (opens in a new tab)
NC Newsline — NC House delays vote on hemp bill until November (4 Aug 2026) [source] (opens in a new tab)
South Carolina Legislature — H.3924 (2025-2026) bill history [source] (opens in a new tab)
SC Attorney General — State Grand Jury Operation “Ganjapreneur” (12 Dec 2025) [source] (opens in a new tab)
SC Attorney General — further “Ganjapreneur” indictments (26 Mar 2026) [source] (opens in a new tab)
SLED — joins State Grand Jury Operation “Ganjapreneur” [source] (opens in a new tab)
Georgia — signed text of SB 494 (2024) [source] (opens in a new tab)
Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission — Hemp FAQs [source] (opens in a new tab)
Tennessee Secretary of State — TABC emergency rule filing 12-40-25 (Dec 2025) [source] (opens in a new tab)

All sources read on 29 August 2026. Bill statuses change; the North Carolina vote is expected in November 2026 and this page will be wrong about it the day it happens. Check the legislature links above rather than trusting this page’s date.