District Hemp Botanicals was set to close its Manassas, Virginia store on Saturday, October 17, after nine years in business, with founder Barbara Biddle citing changing regulations, the loss of popular products, and the challenges facing independent hemp businesses; Virginia's new rules, in effect since August 15, limit consumable hemp products to no more than 2 milligrams of total THC per package, and the federal deadline for most hemp-derived products is now December 11. (The source reported the planned closing on October 15; we have not independently confirmed the store's final day.) It is a genuinely sad story for the consumable side of the shop — and it is not the whole hemp story. Sacred Hemp has always stood on the other side of the plant: THC-free fiber, cloth, and paper that no potency cap touches, like the RAPHAEL 100% Organic Hemp 10oz Long-Sleeve Shirt, the BEL AIR 100% Organic Hemp Knit T-Shirt, and the Rawganique Hemp Journal — goods that sit outside the consumable-product rules at issue in December, and that stay useful and wearable regardless of how that deadline lands.
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