Changes to hemp definitions under the Nov. 2025 Federal Spending Bill and President Trump’s push to reschedule cannabis will impact the scattered industry, but for Tribal Nations, their sovereign determination presents a unique opportunity to create legitimate enterprises.
Two large changes to how hemp and cannabis are classified have large potential to change the cannabis industry. Rob Pero, founder of the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association (ICIA) and owner of Wisconsin’s first Indigenous-owned hemp farm and THC beverage company, looks towards how these changes impact his own business, advocacy and efforts in the cannabis industry throughout Indian Country.
“The ban basically closes the loophole,” Pero said. “The clock is ticking on what that looks like, but I think there’s still a lot of defining and massaging to this language that has to happen from all sectors.”
In November, the Federal Spending Bill had a provision to change the legal definition of hemp. The change effectively bans products like Delta-8 and THCA through its limit of total THC concentration of no more than 0.3% on a dry weight basis — or a limit of 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container in a final hemp-derived product.
Cannabis dispensaries operated in a legal loophole prior to this classification, as no formal laws for hemp-derived products existed. Changes to hemp definitions now close that loophole with a one-year transition period. The new regulation will be in full effect in November 2026.
Over a month later, President Trump signed an executive order to expedite the reclassification of cannabis. It directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to hasten the process of loosening federal restrictions without a timeline.
The order aims to increase research on its medical use without legalization. Trump’s plan for the executive order is to make it easier to conduct cannabis-related medical research to study benefits, dangers and potential treatments, CNN reported.
The combination of changes with hemp definition and push for schedule reclassification presents opportunities for Tribes, but how they react will take time, Pero said.
“There is a lot for Tribes to digest in this announcement, and Tribal Nations will continue to determine what is in the best interest of their own communities, as they always have. Rescheduling cannabis to Schedule III is a commonsense step toward progress that acknowledges its medical value and supports expanded research, but it does not change the responsibility of Tribes to govern thoughtfully and on their own terms,” Pero said. “Indian Country will continue to lead with sovereignty, community well-being, and long-term impacts at the center of these decisions.”
To advance efforts, ICIA has partnered with the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) to strengthen the policy framework in Indian Country.
Indian Country has passed two joint resolutions to express ICIA’s and NCAI’s positions on policy for how it impacts Tribes.
The first resolution calls on Congress and the Trump Administration to support Tribal cannabis sovereignty and intertribal trade. The second calls for supporting safe regulation of hemp-derived cannabinoids in Indian Country and protecting USDA-approved Tribal hemp programs.
Regulations can create safer cannabis and strengthen the industry
Announcements posit a potential net benefit in regulation in Pero’s eyes. The options he believes are common-sense reform to create a safe, legal market or risk an unsafe black market. Pero points to the current beverage market as an example.
“There’s a lot of talk about the beverage aspect of the industry being protected somehow, if these low-dose THC beverages should be at grocery stores or in a dispensary. Dispensaries are off-putting,” Pero said.
Talks have circled around treating low-dose THC drinks like a light beer, he said. As it stands, the broad availability of THCA products like drinks, gummies and flower in readily accessible places like gas stations is a result of poor regulation, Pero said.
“You shouldn’t be able to go to a gas station and have a 17-year-old tell you that it’s okay to buy 26% THCA,” Pero said.
The Federal Spending Bill and its November 2026 implementation deadline would alleviate some of the poor regulations that allows high dosage products to make their way into gas stations.
As it relates to joint resolutions between ICIA and NCAI — specifically the portion on intertribal trade — Pero hopes to see changes that allow state partnerships.
The current state of cannabis and hemp regulation makes no room for production or retail-based partnerships across states. Cannabis industries are limited to per-state domestic operations due to a lack of federal regulation and interstate commerce bans preventing the transportation of goods across state lines.
There is no trade between state lines currently allowed. Tribes, despite their sovereignty on their own lands, cannot leverage their independence to create industrial hemp and cannabis partnerships due to the need for interstate use.
Intertribal trade would, ideally, help bolster a larger Indigenous industry in cannabis if the resolution does gain support from Congress and the Trump Administration.
