Heather Reilly Hiemstra sits down with Nick Steiner — Director of Independent Retail Sales at Balanced Health Botanicals — to decode the federal regulation threatening to reshape the full spectrum hemp industry. HR 6500 would cap THC at 0.4 milligrams per container, a limit that would effectively wipe out most full spectrum products on shelves today. Nick’s message: calm down, nothing is law yet, and the fight is far from finished.

If you’ve been wondering whether your favorite hemp product is about to disappear — or whether ”hemp” and ”getting high” are really the same thing — this episode gives you the insider’s read, straight from someone who has been shaping federal hemp policy since the Farm Bill era.

Conversations include

• What HR 6500 Actually Says
  The bill as written would limit THC to 0.4 milligrams per container — a threshold that would decimate full spectrum hemp and gut the endocannabinoid-enriching properties that Rockstar Blends and CBDistillery’s entire product lines depend on. Nick explains why it keeps getting pushed back, and what ”One Hemp” is doing about it.
• The Cannabinoids the Farm Bill Forgot
  The 2018 Farm Bill addressed only Delta 9 THC and CBD — leaving CBN, CBG, CBDA and hundreds of other phytocannabinoids in a legal gray zone. Nick shares why he sees CBN as a sleep cannabinoid and CBG for anxiety and stress, maps what regulators are catching up to, and which synthesized cannabinoids (THCA, Delta 8) actually drove the crackdown.
• Topicals vs. Ingestibles: Different Lanes
  A companion rulemaking — HR 7212 — proposes separate regulatory lanes for topicals versus edibles and ingestibles. Nick explains why he sees full spectrum topicals as essentially untouchable by the current bill, and what Rockstar’s RollOn users should actually watch.
• Your Body, Your Cannabinoid Profile
  There is no one-size-fits-all hemp dose — not even calibrated by size and weight the way alcohol is. Nick makes the case for treating your ECS like a personal soundboard: the right cannabinoid balance is unique to your own makeup, and getting there is a practice, not a prescription.
• From a Closet to Capitol Hill
  Four guys hand-drawing labels in a closet twelve years ago. Today, CBDistillery works hand in hand with federal government to shape hemp policy in the United States and international markets. Nick’s through-line: push back ethically, bring the data, and keep going.

Tune in to get the clearest plain-language breakdown of what HR 6500 means for your shelf — and walk away knowing exactly which bill numbers to track, where to find them on congress.gov, and how to make your voice heard before the ink dries.

About Nick Steiner

Nick Steiner is Director of Independent Retail Sales at Balanced Health Botanicals, the parent company of CBDistillery — one of the leading hemp brands in the country. Since joining CBDistillery in 2018, he helped build the independent retail business from the ground up and assembled a national sales team now represented in more than 5,000 stores across the United States.

A vocal advocate for transparency, efficacy, and fair federal hemp regulation, Nick is part of One Hemp, the industry coalition — alongside Charlotte’s Web and Cure Hemp — fighting for better rulemaking as Congress debates HR 6500. He has been Rockstar Blends’ primary hemp source and account representative since the company’s earliest days as an LLC.

On this episode, Nick brings an industry insider’s read on what the proposed rule changes actually say, which cannabinoids are in the crosshairs, and why the full spectrum hemp industry is not going down without a serious fight.