Touring a Lexington manufacturing facility, Sen. Rand Paul pressed his bill letting states like Kentucky keep regulating hemp beverages themselves as Texas's twin THC lawsuits stayed stalled without a ruling.
GULF & INTERIOR SOUTH, Aug. 20, 2026: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul renewed his push to let states keep regulating hemp beverages under their own rules rather than the federal government's incoming cap, telling reporters August 18 during a tour of a Lexington manufacturing facility that Kentucky's system, licensed 21-plus sales through liquor stores, should be allowed to stand on its own.
"I'd like to let Kentucky regulate it instead of the federal government completely prohibiting it," Paul said. He pointed to the Hemp Safety Enforcement Act, a bill he introduced in April with Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, that would let any state or tribal government notify the federal government and take over hemp regulation itself, provided it keeps a minimum purchase age and a ban on synthetic cannabinoids.
In Texas, both of the state's active hemp lawsuits remained stalled without a ruling. The Texas Hemp Business Council said it planned to file its response brief with the Fifteenth Court of Appeals on August 14, arguing the trial court was right to grant the temporary injunction it is now seeking to have reinstated against the Department of State Health Services' March 31 rules; no confirmation that the brief was filed, or any ruling, had surfaced by this report. Separately, the federal preliminary-injunction request over the state's July 31 Schedule I reclassification of delta-8 and similar products, filed in Galveston after a judge denied an emergency bid to block the ban August 9, also had no hearing date set. DSHS's rules, including the fee increases and the total-THC testing standard, remain active and enforceable in the meantime.
Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma produced no hemp-beverage legislation, rulemaking, enforcement action or confirmed company news this week; each state's existing framework, from Oklahoma's 0.3% total-THC standard to Arkansas's near-total ban under Act 629, remained unchanged.
Kentucky's House delegation and the broader hemp industry are watching whether the state-opt-out approach in Paul's bill gains traction once Congress returns from recess August 31, alongside a separate House vote on the Senate's language extending the federal cap's effective date to December 11. In Texas, the Fifteenth Court of Appeals has not set a schedule for further briefing or a ruling in the THBC case, and Sen. Charles Perry's promised 2027 bill to ban consumable hemp products remains unfiled.
Forma works embedded on hemp and THC beverage formulation and commercial scale-up, from compliant dosing and label claims through co-packer qualification. This wire is a byproduct of the same regulatory tracking that informs that work.
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