The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that all hemp-derived products, including those created through chemical synthesis, are legal under federal law.

This ruling aligns with a 2022 decision from the Ninth Circuit but goes against more recent guidance from the DEA. In a letter from February 2023, the DEA stated that the 2018 Farm Bill was not intended to legalize synthetic cannabinoids, such as THC-O, even if their THC content is below the legal limit.

Despite acknowledging the disagreement, the Fourth Circuit sided with the Ninth Circuit’s interpretation, which held that the Farm Bill’s definition of hemp includes all cannabis plant derivatives as long as they contain less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC. The court stated that this interpretation is clear and that they did not need to defer to the DEA’s position.

“The Ninth Circuit held that it didn’t need to consider the DEA’s position on synthetically derived substances because the definition of ‘hemp’ under the 2018 Farm Act was unambiguous in its application to all products derived from the cannabis plant, ‘so long as they do not cross the 0.3 percent delta-9 THC threshold,’” states the court. “Between the DEA’s February 2023 letter and [the Ninth Circuit decision], we think the Ninth Circuit’s interpretation of the 2018 Farm Act is the better of the two. And we’re free to make that determination ourselves, despite a contrary interpretation from the DEA, because we agree with the Ninth Circuit that § 1639o is unambiguous.”

The case arose from a dispute over whether an employer could fire an employee for using hemp products. The court ultimately upheld the firing because the employee failed to prove the products used were compliant with the THC limits outlined in the 2018 Farm Bill.

CBD results in 100% mortality of pesticide-resistant mosquito larvae.

New research in the effort to address global insecticide resistance has found that CBD, commonly used to manage various health conditions, is also highly effective in eliminating mosquito larvae.

The study, published in the journal Insects, found that hemp leaf extract – which contains the active ingredient cannabidiol, or CBD – kills mosquito larvae from two different strains of the yellow fever mosquito within 48 hours, one that was resistant to typical insecticides and another that was not.

“Mosquitoes are one of the deadliest animals in the world, mainly because as adults they serve as vectors of disease,” said Erick Martinez Rodriguez, lead author of the study and a graduate student in entomology at The Ohio State University. “It’s very important to be able to control these pests at an early stage, when they are at the most vulnerable.”

Unlike adult mosquitoes that can fly across great distances and transmit disease by biting, mosquito larvae are aquatic organisms often found in standing water. Conventional synthetic insecticides are critical chemical tools for killing mosquito larvae populations, but their rampant overuse has led to both insecticide resistance and other detrimental effects on the environment.

Challenges of Conventional Insecticides
Inspired by previous Ohio State research that discovered that the bark properties of a plant native to Madagascar worked as a natural mosquito insecticide and repellent, Martinez Rodriguez sought to determine if hemp could act as a viable and safe alternative to current biopesticides.

The hemp plant is related to marijuana, but does not contain its levels of the ingredient that makes people feel “high.” CBD from hemp is used in a variety of products from gummies and oils to treat anxiety, pain, insomnia, and other conditions.

To test hemp’s toxic effects against mosquito larvae, the team took air-dried hemp leaves, pulverized them into a fine powder, and soaked the material in methanol for a few weeks to reach the desired CBD concentrations.

The methanol was later removed from the solution to make it easier to chemically analyze, resulting in an extract that was eventually given to the larvae with their food.

Depending on the concentration of hemp extract used, the team discovered that the hemp leaf was potent enough to be equally toxic to both strains of mosquito larvae. What was surprising, though, said Martinez Rodriguez, was the small amount needed to be so deadly.

“If you compare the amount of hemp extract needed to kill 50% of the population to other synthetic conventional insecticides, it is on the high side, but when you compare it side-by-side to other natural extracts we have tested in our lab, only a relatively low amount is required to produce high mortality values in larvae,” said Martinez Rodriguez. While CBD eventually led to 100% mortality for the larvae, different concentrations of the hemp extract caused different mortality rates in the hours leading up to that time.

Hemp’s Advantages and Future Research Directions
The mosquito larvae were considered dead if no movement was recorded after scientists gently touched their abdomen with a needle or pipette tip. Although it’s still unclear how the extract affects them biologically, the team’s findings showed that CBD was the primary active ingredient in the extract and that it can successfully bypass the larvae’s metabolic resistance to other insecticides, which aligns with past work that found CBD has notable growth-inhibiting properties against other insects.

Since hemp is also a more sustainable crop than many other plant alternatives, insecticide products that use it could potentially be produced relatively cheaply, said Martinez Rodriguez.

While this discovery bodes well for developing future natural-based mosquito control products, said Peter Piermarini, co-author of the study and a professor of entomology at Ohio State, further research would have to be done to investigate how safe hemp and CBD would be for non-target organisms, like honey bees or other pollinating insects that scientists don’t want to kill or disrupt by introducing potentially harmful additives to the environment.

“CBD is a compound that appears to be safe for people and our companion animals to ingest,” said Piermarini. “It’ll be interesting to learn more about how CBD interacts with various proteins in mammals and insects to understand why it’s safe for people but not insects.”

Reference: “Larvicidal Activity of Hemp Extracts and Cannabidiol against the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti” by Erick J. Martínez Rodríguez, P. Larry Phelan, Luis Canas, Nuris Acosta, Harinantenaina L. Rakotondraibe and Peter M. Piermarini, 9 July 2024, Insects.
DOI: 10.3390/insects15070517

This work was supported by the Infectious Diseases Institute and the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at Ohio State. Other Ohio State co-authors include Larry Phelan, Luis Canas, Nuris Acosta and Harinantenaina L. Rakotondraibe.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), who's been in Congress for more than three decades, has had enough.
She's introduced legislation to remove the FDA's food authority and start fresh with a new agency: The Federal Food Administration.
https://wjla.com/resources/pdf/1425c052-a30c-4578-90ea-6744f83ac635-TAM24855.pdf

The agency sent us the below statement:
"As you may be aware, in May the FDA reached a significant milestone with approval of its reorganization involving the creation of a unified Human Foods Program (HFP), adoption of a new model for its field operations and other significant modernization efforts. The reorganization implementation is currently targeted for Oct. 1, 2024, notably enhancing the agency’s ability to oversee and protect the human food supply and other products the FDA regulates. The reorganization will enable the FDA to be more efficient, nimble and prepared for the ever-changing and complex industries we regulate, new food and medical product technologies, as well as the impacts of globalization, climate change and other factors that require the agency to quickly adapt.

Additional information can be found here:
https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/fda-modernization-efforts-establishing-unified-human-foods-program-new-model-field-operations-and

Funding
Funding for this study was provided by Charlotte’s Web.

Results
Histopathological analysis of the LPS group showed moderate hyperemia, hemorrhages, edema, inflammation, and myocardial cell damage. There was a slight to moderate increase in Cox-1, G-CSF, and IL-3 immunoexpressions, along with enhanced expressions of IL-6, Hif1a, and STAT3 genes, and decreased expressions of eNOS genes. Additionally, there were increased levels of TOS and decreased TAS levels observed biochemically. CBD treatment effectively reversed and improved all of these observed changes.

Conclusions
CBD protects the heart and aorta against systemic inflammation through its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity via regulating IL-6, Hif1a, STAT3, and eNOS intracellular pathways.

Results: Ninety-seven products were purchased (35 in-store, 62 online). Of the 71 products with a specific total CBD amount on the label, 35 (49%) were underlabeled (>10% more CBD than advertised), 27 (38%) were overlabeled (>10% less CBD than advertised), and 9 (12.7%) were accurately labeled (within ±10% of labeled CBD). The median (range) percentage deviations were -53% (-100%–76%) for haircare products, +18% (-100%-1076%) for cosmetics, and -1% (-100%-4468%) for food/drinks. CBD label accuracy did not differ significantly between products with external testing claims versus those without (t40 = 0.23, p = 0.82). Overall, 24% of the 97 (total) products made a cosmetic or beauty claim (e.g., “skin looks more youthful”), 40% made a therapeutic claim (e.g., “pain relief”), and 86% made a health halo effect claim (e.g., “paraben-free,” “dye-free,” etc.). Most products (63%) did not include a disclaimer that claims had not been evaluated by the FDA.
Conclusions: Most of the products included in this sample were inaccurately labeled for CBD content, including those claiming to have been tested by third party laboratories. A notable finding was that 10 products did not contain any CBD. Many products made therapeutic claims or used marketing tactics to seemingly convey they were safe/healthy, but only about one-third included disclaimers that these statements had not been evaluated by the FDA. These findings highlight the need for proper regulatory oversight of cannabinoid-containing products to ensure quality assurance and deter misleading or unfounded health claims in product marketing.

Veterinary students and scientists in Brazil used cannabis oil to successfully treat a dog with a common skin disease that did not respond to previous treatment. The corresponding study was published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

Discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE) is a common autoimmune disease that typically affects the skin on the nose and ears of dogs. It is characterized by inflammation, loss of hair pigment, and redness, which can lead to crusting and ulceration. The condition's underlying cause remains unknown; however, it is thought to arise from a mix of genetics, infections, hormones, and sun exposure. Current treatments include corticosteroids to reduce inflammation; however, these carry a risk of unwanted side effects.

Previous research suggests that cannabinoids cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocnnabidiol (THC) reduce inflammation in both dogs and humans without any detrimental side effects.

In the current case report, a two-year-old female mixed-breed dog with DLE was not responding to corticosteroids and other medications. The researchers thus decided to treat the dog with cannabis oil.

After some experimentation, they found that cannabis oil containing CBD and THC on a ratio of 3:1 worked best. To begin, the dog was given a single drop orally once daily for three days to test for negative reactions. The treatment continued after no negative reactions were reported, and the dosage was slowly adjusted until the minimum effective dose was found. After several weeks, some signs of DLE started to disappear, and after a year, all symptoms were relieved.

"After 1year, the dog remains clinically stable on a low dose of full-spectrum CBD-rich oil. No evidence of DLE recurrence was observed," wrote the researchers in their paper.

“This case suggests that cannabinoid therapy (CT) may be a viable alternative or complementary therapy for DLE in dogs, particularly for those experiencing adverse effects from conventional treatments. Further research is warranted to confirm the efficacy and safety of CT for DLE management in dogs,” continued the researchers.

For instance, if a federal agency says a product can't contain a certain amount of CBD, companies can more easily challenge that decision in court. The agency can no longer rely solely on its supposed expertise to defend its rules.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration has proposed new rules that mean, for the first time, medications containing delta-9 THC from the cannabis plant could be eligible for approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In overruling Chevron on Friday, the Supreme Court ushered in a new framework, dubbed Loper Bright. Courts are now required to “exercise their independent judgement in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority” and “may not defer to an agency interpretation of the law simply because a statute is ambiguous.”

This new framework could have significant consequences for the FDA and its regulatory authority, according to an analysis by global law firm Sidley.

The firm contends that Loper Bright could potentially open the regulator’s drug approvals to legal challenges. Companies need to provide “substantial evidence” that their drug candidates are safe and effective before securing approval, but courts in the past have found this ambiguous and have allowed the FDA to ask for additional requirements, such as data showing that the candidate’s effects are clinically meaningful, according to Sidley.

Under Loper Bright, more companies could try and challenge this approach, Sidley warned.

The overturning of Chevron could also pose some jurisdictional questions for the FDA, which is typically given the leeway to decide what constitutes a dietary supplement or a device product. These kinds of determinations affect how products are regulated, produced, or imported—and companies can now mount stronger challenges to this function by the FDA.

Don’t overlook this underwater synergy!