Podcaster Joe Rogan says Congress needs to fix the “really bad” mistake lawmakers made by recriminalizing consumable hemp products—warning that restricting access to cannabinoids like CBD will harm people who use them therapeutically, such as his mother-in-law. And he attributes the passage of the controversial cannabis ban to alcohol industry lobbying.
On an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast that was released on Tuesday, Rogan and comedian Theo Von discussed the federal hemp THC product prohibition that was included in a spending bill that President Donald Trump signed into law last week.
“They slipped this thing in where you can no longer buy CBD,” Rogan said. “It has to be like the lowest trace amount of THC in it. Like my wife’s mom, she’s an older lady and she takes CBD for pain for joints and stuff like that.”
The hemp policy change won’t be implemented for another year, and stakeholders are already at work seeking to get lawmakers to advance legislation before then to provide a regulatory alternative to prohibition for intoxicating cannabinoids.
But as enacted, the law would prescribe a THC limit so low that hemp businesses widely believe the industry would be wiped out. That’s because it’s virtually impossible to produce and extract even non-intoxicating cannabinoids like CBD without traces of THC in the final product, unless a company makes the costly decision to manufacture CBD isolates.
Even then, as Rogan pointed out, patients like his mother-in-law often report that CBD products are more effective at treating conditions such as pain and inflammation when they contain some amount of THC or other cannabinoids. Scientists call this synergistic quality of cannabis the “entourage effect.”
Rogan and Von went back and forth about the hemp ban and mocked Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for his role in “slipping” the prohibitionist provisions into the appropriations legislation. Rogan called the senator, who championed a section of the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized hemp and its derivatives, a “dead fucking old turtle” and said “everybody hates him.”
Rogan stressed that Congress needs to “change” the “really bad” law they enacted, at least for patients’ sake.
Von asked Rogan to expand on why he took issue with the federal hemp policy reversal, and the podcaster said it’s because “people that are getting benefits from CBD” see better health outcomes with THC in the mix, even at “super, super low amounts” that doesn’t cause a high.
“Like, this is the misunderstanding. This stuff’s not gonna get you high,” Rogan said. “But what it will do is it helps with anxiety for a lot of people. It definitely reduces inflammation.” He also mentioned a friend, the actor Dave Foley, whose arthritis is “now gone” since he started using cannabis.
“It’s really effective, man. It’s really effective,” he said, adding that he believes the alcohol industry was a driving force in getting Congress to impose the hemp ban.
“It’s the same people that are trying to keep marijuana illegal in Texas. It’s the alcohol lobby. The fact is, when people start smoking weed, they drink less,” he said. “It could be because they just decided to get high and not get drunk. Or it could be that they smoke pot and they get a little paranoid and they go, oh my god, why am I poisoning myself five days a week?”
Von joked that nowadays people are “just doing like cocaine and saunas, it seems like,” to which Rogan replied: “Maybe in your neighborhood.”
The host has made a habit of raising drug policy issues on his podcast. That includes late last year, when he claimed former Vice President Kamala Harris “didn’t want to talk about marijuana legalization” when she was invited—and ultimately declined—to participate in an interview him ahead of the presidential election.
Harris discussed the issue in a book Updated earlier this year, disputing Rogan’s claims and asserting that the reason she didn’t go on the show was related to broader scheduling and location inflexibility on the podcast’s end. Rogan, who ultimately endorsed Trump shortly before the election, said he thought the alleged refusal to discuss cannabis “was hilarious.”
Also last year, Rogan fielded questions about the medical potential of psychedelics from then-Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) before he was elected vice president. Vance said he was “fascinated” by the subject and asked about potential pathways to provide therapeutic access to substances like MDMA and psilocybin for military veterans with mental health conditions.
Image element courtesy of Joe Rogan.
