Next Week Kara and John Trade Mud Boots for Marble Floors

Next week Kara and John are going to Washington, DC with the Hemp Industry and Farmers of America fly in. They are not going for a photo op, not going to kiss rings, not going to “network” their way into a fancy cocktail hour where people pretend they know what a hemp plant looks like. They are going because the folks writing the rules keep treating hemp like a rumor, and the people living it, growing it, testing it, bottling it, labeling it, and answering customer questions every single day, are the last ones getting asked.

Kara and John are going to ask for a 24 month extension on enforcement of the ban. Not because they want a loophole, not because they want chaos, and not because they are scared of rules. They are asking for 24 months so the country can write reasonable, responsible hemp regulations that actually work, without detonating the livelihoods of farmers and small manufacturers in the middle of a growing season.

Because here is the part that gets lost in the noise, hemp is not a meme, it is not a political football, it is not a convenient villain for somebody’s campaign email. Hemp is seed in the ground, it is a crop plan, it is contracts, it is labor, it is compliance tests, it is extraction runs, it is packaging orders, it is inventory, it is payroll, it is families trying to keep a roof over their heads. When government does whiplash regulation, the big players shrug and hire another attorney. The little guys eat the loss, then get told they should have “planned better.” Planned better for what, a roulette wheel.

Kara and John are veterans, and they run their business like adults. They test at harvest, they test extracts, they test final products, and they put the CoAs out there because people deserve to know what they are buying. They support clear age gating for ingestibles and any adult use products, they support child resistant packaging, and they support labels that are not marketed to kids. They have been saying for a long time that hemp can be regulated like a responsible industry, with clarity and accountability, without punishing the people who are trying to do it right.

But you cannot regulate responsibly if you are doing it with a sledgehammer and a deadline that ignores agriculture reality.

A 24 month extension is not some shady stall tactic. It is a pressure release valve. It gives time for lawmakers to build a real framework that distinguishes between products meant to intoxicate and products meant for wellness, topicals, and everyday use. It gives time to set clear potency rules, clear testing requirements, clear labeling rules, clear enforcement priorities, and clear pathways for compliant small businesses to stay compliant. It gives time so farmers do not plant a crop and then get told, halfway through the season, that the entire downstream market just got kneecapped because a politician needed a headline.

Kara and John are also going into these meetings hoping to speak directly with Missouri’s delegation and key national voices who have the influence to keep this from turning into a rushed mess. They are hoping to meet with Senator Josh Hawley and Senator Eric Schmitt, and Representative Bob Onder. They are also hoping to meet with Senator Rand Paul and Representative Thomas Massie. Those are the kinds of offices where a clear, practical message can actually move something, if it is heard without the usual filter of panic, talking points, and lobbyist fog.

They are going with HIFA because this fight is bigger than them. It is farmers, it is retailers, it is manufacturers, it is the people doing it the hard way, in the open, with paperwork, inspections, taxes, and real skin in the game. Like any fast growing industry, hemp needs clear guardrails and consistent enforcement so customers can trust what they are buying and responsible businesses are not undercut by confusion or uneven rules. Kara and John are not asking Washington to look away, they are asking Washington to slow down long enough to get it right.

What Kara and John will not accept is lazy lawmaking that treats every hemp business like the worst example someone can imagine, or writes rules so vague that enforcement turns into guesswork.

Kara will show up in DC like she always does, calm, sharp, and polite enough to make it look easy. She has that foundress energy, the kind that can sit across from a staffer and say, “Here is what responsible looks like,” without ever raising her voice. John will show up like John, polite, direct, and allergic to nonsense, with a running inner monologue that says, “How did we build a nation that can land rovers on Mars but cannot write a coherent hemp policy without tripping over itself.”

Different flavors, same mission.

Kara and John are not asking for permission to be reckless. They are asking for room to be responsible. They are asking to keep farmers from getting wrecked by sudden enforcement cliffs. They are asking to keep small manufacturers from having to dump inventory that was legal when it was made, tested, and labeled. They are asking to keep customers from being pushed toward the sketchiest supply chain possible because the regulated, tested, transparent shops get shut down and the gray market slithers in smiling.

This is the part nobody wants to say out loud, when you squeeze the legitimate side too hard, you do not get purity, you get underground.

And Kara and John do not want underground. They want boring. They want regulated. They want consistent. They want the kind of rules where a farmer can plan a season and a business can plan a year, without waking up to a fresh disaster because someone in a suit decided to grandstand.

So next week Kara and John go. They will sit in the meetings. They will tell the truth, with receipts. They will tell them what compliance actually costs. They will tell them what testing actually looks like when you do it right. They will tell them what a growing season actually requires. They will tell them that punishing the responsible people does not magically fix the irresponsible ones, it just clears the shelf space for them.

And yes, they are also asking you for something, because this is not a spectator sport.

If you are one of their regulars, or you have ever benefited from a product that helped you sleep, helped you hurt less, helped you stay away from booze, helped you avoid another round of “here is your new prescription,” then tell your story. Write it down. Record it. Keep it simple and honest. Nobody needs a screenplay, just the truth. If you want Kara and John to bring a written testimonial with them, or you want to record one for them to carry into those meetings, tell them. They will gladly do it. The people making policy hear statistics all day, what they rarely hear is the human cost of getting it wrong.

Practical note, because life does not pause for politics. Kara and John will be closed Wednesday and Thursday next week while they are in DC. They will be open through Saturday this week, then back open Friday next week, hopefully with some decent news and maybe even a small miracle, Washington doing something sensible on purpose.

They know this fight is exhausting. They are tired too. But they are also stubborn, the good kind. Bloodied, not conquered. They built this the hard way, and they are not handing it over to panic legislation and sloppy enforcement timelines.

So if you want to help, come stock up before they head out. Send a testimonial. Share the updates when they post them. And keep saying the obvious thing out loud, hemp deserves real regulation, not a rushed crackdown that blows up farmers, small businesses, and customers who were doing everything right.

Kara and John will see you before they roll out, then they will see you after DC, hopefully with a little rebellious mirth and a lot of forward motion.