The DEA Just Drew a Line. The Government Is Choosing For You Again.

A note from Bona Voluntate on the May 2026 HHC ruling, what it actually says, where we disagree, and what it means for the products you still have a right to choose.

On May 4, 2026, the Drug Enforcement Administration published a final rule giving hexahydrocannabinol — HHC — its own specific listing in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, under drug code 7220. The rule took effect the same day it was published, with no notice-and-comment period, no public hearing, and no opportunity for the industry, the consumers who use these products, or the farmers who grow the hemp they come from to weigh in.

That last part deserves a second read.**

A federal agency made a decision that affects an entire legal industry, the livelihoods of thousands of small businesses, and the personal choices of millions of adults — and they did it in a way specifically designed to prevent you from being heard. The DEA called it a "technical amendment." We call it what it is: a unilateral move that takes another option off the shelf, decided by people who don't have to face you, your family, or your wallet.

This is the pattern. And if you've been paying attention, you already know where it leads.

What the DEA Says

The DEA's position, in plain English, is this:

• HHC is a synthetic substance structurally related to tetrahydrocannabinols.

• Therefore HHC has always been a Schedule I controlled substance under the existing THC drug code.

• The 2018 Farm Bill's exemption for "tetrahydrocannabinols in hemp" only covers cannabinoids that come directly from the cannabis plant — not cannabinoids made through chemical conversion, even when the starting material is legal hemp.

• Listing HHC separately is just bookkeeping, so they don't need to ask the public what it thinks.

• They were nudged into formalizing it now because the United Nations added HHC to Schedule II of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the U.S. has treaty obligations to mirror that.
  

Read that last point one more time. The DEA's own rule cites a March 2025 vote at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs as the trigger for this action. An international body voted, the DEA followed, and your right to choose what you put in your own body just got narrower — without a single member of Congress casting a vote.

What We Say

We respectfully — and firmly — disagree.

The 2018 Farm Bill is a statute passed by Congress. It defines hemp broadly: the plant Cannabis sativa L. and "all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers" with a delta-9 THC concentration of not more than 0.3% on a dry-weight basis. That language is not ambiguous. Congress wrote it that way on purpose.

The DEA does not get to rewrite an act of Congress through an administrative bulletin. And federal courts have started saying so out loud.

In 2024, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Anderson v. Diamondback Investment Group looked at the DEA's reasoning on a closely related cannabinoid (THC-O) and called it out directly — holding that the legal line between hemp and marijuana is delta-9 THC concentration, that the Farm Bill is broad and unambiguous, and that the DEA's interpretation "lacks the power to persuade." The Ninth Circuit reached similar conclusions in AK Futures. Both courts pushed back on exactly the kind of agency overreach the DEA is now repeating with HHC.

So yes — we believe the DEA is wrong. We believe a serious legal challenge to this rule is credible. And we believe that the deeper principle here matters more than any single molecule:

The federal government should not be in the business of telling adults which legal hemp-derived cannabinoids they're allowed to consume — least of all by sidestepping Congress and the public to do it.

What We Are Going To Do

We are going to follow our legal counsel. Full stop.

That means: as of now, we are treating HHC as a high-risk cannabinoid. We are aligning our operations with our attorneys' guidance, and we are not going to put our customers, retail partners, or our team in a position of unnecessary federal exposure. We respect the law even when we disagree with how it was made, and we are going to act like the responsible operator we have always been.

But here is the harder truth we owe you:

This is not just about HHC.

The same logic the DEA used in this rule — "if it's made through chemical conversion, it's synthetic, and synthetic means Schedule I" — could be pointed at any number of cannabinoids you currently enjoy. Delta-8. THCP. THCV. HHC-O. The full library of legal alternatives that exist precisely because adults wanted choices the federal government wasn't offering them.

If this rule stands unchallenged, it becomes the template for the next one. And the one after that.

What This Means For You, Right Now

If you are a consumer of legal hemp-derived cannabinoid products, here is the practical reality:

• Delta-8, THCP, THCV, and the rest of the legal cannabinoid family remain available through Bona Voluntate and our retail partners. We have not changed our position on those products.

• The legal and regulatory environment around all of them is moving faster than it has in years. What is on the shelf today may not be on the shelf in twelve months — not because the science changed, not because anyone got hurt, but because someone in Washington decided you shouldn't have the option.

• If there are products you rely on, products you trust, or products you have been meaning to try — now is the time. Not because we are panicking, and not because we are running a sale. Because the window of consumer choice is being narrowed in real time, by people who have never met you and will never have to live with the consequences of their decisions.
  

Stock up. Talk to your favorite retailer. Try the blends you have been curious about. Build a relationship with brands that take the law, the science, and you seriously — because the brands that survive what is coming are going to be the ones operating with both eyes open.

The Bigger Picture

Bona Voluntate was built on a simple idea: that adults are capable of making informed decisions about what they consume, and that hemp — a plant Congress legalized in 2018 — has a real and legitimate place in that conversation. We have always believed that personal choice, paired with clean manufacturing, honest labeling, and rigorous testing, is how this industry earns its right to exist.

The DEA disagrees. The United Nations disagrees. And increasingly, federal regulators are willing to act on that disagreement without asking anyone whose life is actually affected.

We are going to keep operating cleanly. We are going to keep supporting legal challenges to overreach. We are going to keep showing up for our customers, our retail partners, and the consumers who built this industry from the ground up.

And we are going to keep telling you the truth — even when the truth is uncomfortable, even when it's inconvenient, and especially when the people in charge would rather you not hear it.

The government is making choices for you again.

Make yours while you still can.

Bona Voluntate is a Michigan-based hemp and cannabinoid manufacturer, distributor, and wholesaler. Nothing in this post is legal advice. If you operate in this space, talk to your own attorney about how the May 2026 DEA rule applies to your business. Sources: Federal Register, 91 FR 23913, May 4, 2026; Anderson v. Diamondback Investment Group (4th Cir. 2024); AK Futures LLC v. Boyd Street Distro (9th Cir. 2022).