Dr. Patty Locuratolo Hymanson is a neurologist and former state representative who lives in York.

Walk into almost any vape shop or gas station in Maine and you will find products on the shelf that can get you high. No age check. No safety testing. Packaging that looks like candy. Mystery vape cartridges.

I spent years in the Maine Legislature working on health policy. Before that, I spent decades as a neurologist. When Maine convened a working group to study the unlicensed, unregulated, intoxicating hemp products that appeared alongside our state medical and adult use cannabis markets, I joined it. 

What I heard confirmed my worst concerns.

Maine has built a strong cannabis regulatory system. Lab testing. Child and tamper resistant packaging. Age verification. Strict labeling. We did that work because we know intoxicating products require oversight. But hemp-derived products that produce the same effects? They fell through a loophole in federal law. Similar high. None of the guardrails.

Our working group brought together hemp producers, public health experts and retail industry representatives. The Legislature’s Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee had already recognized the core problem: Maine law had no mechanism to limit access to these now federally legal products. The committee voted unanimously that something had to change. The working group dug into why.

What we found was troubling. Products with no standardized testing. Inconsistent labeling. Synthetic chemicals that no regulatory body had ever evaluated. 

And perhaps most concerning — a rising number of poison control calls involving children. As a neurologist, let me be plain about what that means. The adolescent brain is still developing into a person’s mid-20s. THC exposure, one chemical that creates a high, during that window carries documented risks to memory, cognitive development and mental health.

We regulate and age gate alcohol. We regulate and age gate tobacco. We built an entire framework around adult-use and medical cannabis for exactly these reasons. Deriving an intoxicating compound from a different THC isomer and calling it “hemp” does not make it safe.

Congress acted in November 2025. It closed the Farm Bill loophole by replacing the old THC standard with a stricter one, prohibiting synthetic cannabinoids and capping all forms of THC per container. Attorneys general from 39 states backed the move. Nearly 80 organizations representing doctors, law enforcement and families urged Congress to act. This was not a close call.

Now the industry wants to undo it. Lobbyists are pushing Congress to reverse or delay the ban, or to let states opt out. 

I want people to understand what is actually being asked here. Independent testing has found these products mislabeled, contaminated with pesticides and heavy metals and laced with industrial solvents. These are silent toxins that accumulate injury to the body until they do future harm. Particularly dangerous are vaping these hemp and synthetic compounds. Taking the smoke into the fragile lung tissue risks accumulating damage. The buyer has no idea what is in these products.

Ultimately, we have an unregulated market asking to stay unregulated.

There are good Maine producers who will be swept up in this ban. Maine businesses and farmers that produce salves and other non-intoxicating hemp products. That’s unfortunate. The bad actors make trouble for those who are well-intentioned. But the alternative is worse.  

Balancing this will take time. Meanwhile, control the harm ensuring the loophole is closed for intoxicating hemp.  

Congress should hold the line. Oppose any effort to reverse, change or delay the hemp ban.  Protect children and public health.