Per Ihub poster sleekscape:
Congress not only just federally legalized Hemp-derived CBD, but they took it completely off the Schedule of Controlled Substances — so any comparisons to how federal agencies have dealt with federally illegal Schedule I MJ are not rational or relevant to Hemp and Hemp-derived CBD
This is a very new industry — Hemp has been federally prohibited for 81 years
81 years
Think about that
There is no federal regulatory framework whatsoever around hemp right now — literally zero
Not around farming, not around processing, not around distribution, not around packaging and labeling, retail sales, etc
And in almost every state that has itself legalized hemp to this point, with the lone exception of Colorado, there is no real framework around the commercial Hemp-CBD sector, so there are no laws in place that explicitly legalize CBD products for consumption
The reason why that’s the case is because The 2014 Farm Bill gave states the right to legalize the cultivation of hemp for research purposes only, not for commercial activity
So every state that has permitted sales of Hemp-CBD products to consumers since 2014 has been breaking federal law
So why did that happen?
Why did every state break federal law without even giving it much thought?
And why didn’t any federal governmental agency try to stop it?
Where was the DEA crackdown on Hemp-CBD products?
Where was the FDA crackdown on Hemp-CBD products?
The answer to all of these questions is that there has never been any real safety concern over CBD
Unlike THC, it isn’t psychoactive and doesn’t impair physical functioning, either
Nobody has shown up to an emergency room because they consumed too many CBD edibles
Nobody has been pulled over while driving because of being intoxicated due to CBD
CBD has been consumed by millions of people over the past few years, and there isn’t any pattern of medical or health issues that has arisen as a result
Starting in 2016, the FDA published federal guidelines around CBD, prohibiting it from being consumed in any and all forms including food, beverage and supplements
Nobody cared
The states didn’t care
Companies making and selling consumable Hemp-CBD Oil products didn’t care
Even the FDA didn’t care about its own guidelines
Whenever the FDA sent a letter to a CBD Oil company, the crux of the letter was to inform them that it was illegal to make health claims — the FDA requested that they remove health claims from their website or from their product label — the FDA never demanded that they stop selling their products
Those exact same guidelines around CBD that the FDA published in 2016 continue to be in place in 2019 — they haven’t changed one iota
They are federal guidelines, but they are only guidelines — they are not laws
So their enforceability is practically zero
The FDA is a regulatory agency and in The 2018 Farm Bill, Congress has given them the task of developing a regulatory framework around Hemp-CBD as a consumable good
The FDA’s primary regulatory concern right now is labeling and transparency, because if there was any actual safety concern with CBD, the FDA would never have given the okay for Mitch to include CBD in the definition of Hemp — The Hemp Farming Act of 2018 that passed into law in late December federally legalized all cannabinoids and extracts of Hemp, including CBD oil, as long as the concentration of THC by weight is .3% or less
Consumers have a right to know what they are ingesting, and now that Hemp-derived CBD is nationally legal, the FDA has a duty to set up regulations around it, just as they do with any consumable ingredient — this is FDA 101
I’ve seen some very misleading headlines out there recently about CBD
Any assertion that the FDA is cracking down on CBD has no basis in fact
I feel like I am reading the National Enquirer sometimes when I see some of these headlines
Writers attempting to weave a common narrative around CBD announcements that have occurred in different states over the past few days is an exercise in tabloid journalism
Ohio, Maine, and New York were the first 3 states to wind up in the news and they somehow all got lumped together under the same false narrative — the FDA is cracking down on CBD
Ohio’s recent announcement about banning sales of Hemp-CBD products in all establishments outside of state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries isn’t even news — when Ohio passed legislation to legalize medical MJ, included in that legislation was a ban on selling CBD products outside of dispensaries — this ban was included because it’s what the MJ folks in Ohio wanted to minimize competition from Hemp products and the state liked it because it would mean more tax revenue — Ohio never legalized Hemp, so even though MJ-derived CBD is now legal to be sold in Ohio dispensaries, Hemp-derived CBD is still illegal statewide — this is totally Twilight Zone stuff, so this is a very unique situation — Ohio had already made the the exact same announcement about banning sales of Hemp-CBD in October 2018 as a reminder to stores that were still selling Hemp-CBD products, because the medical marijuana dispensaries are slated to open in 2019 — So Ohio’s recent announcement has absolutely nothing to do with the FDA or any kind of federal crackdown on CBD products and any reporter doing even a smidgen of research would realize this fact immediately
Maine is an unusual state as well — Recreational MJ was on the ballot in November 2016 and it passed by a very small margin — the state legislature then wrote up a Rec MJ Legalization bill and passed it, but the Governor vetoed it and and here we are well over 2 years after Rec MJ passed on the ballot and there is no Recreational MJ industry in Maine — so from the state government perspective, Maine is an anti-cannabis state in general
So let’s look at what happened in Maine this week
The anti-cannabis element in Maine’s government, led by their attorney general, attempted to take advantage of the fact that there is no regulatory framework in place around edible forms of CBD, and the DHHS began sending letters to businesses asking them to remove all CBD-containing consumable products from stores — this overreaction led to an immediate pushback and the very next day here is what happened:
“A group of over 100 people attended a rally at the Maine State House on Tuesday to protest the government’s decision. Inside the chamber, Rep. Craig Hickman (D) introduced an emergency bill that would make the sale of all edible forms of hemp-derived CBD legal. The bill, which Hickman said has the support of Gov. Janet Mills, may receive a public hearing by the end of February.”
So the citizenry protested and their elected officials, including the Governor, agreed that all edible forms of Hemp-CBD products should be formally legalized by passing emergency legislation — I expect that Maine will now explicitly legalize Hemp-CBD for all forms of edible consumption within the next 2-3 weeks — this is what I call an FDA counterpunch, and I expect that we will see a slew of states following Maine’s lead moving forward
So this brings us to New York, which is obviously a major player on the national scene
The NY Dept of Health has announced that restaurants and bars are not permitted to add CBD to prepared food or drink — this does not restrict the sale of packaged and labeled CBD-infused food and beverage products — only prepared food and prepared drinks
Here is an attorney’s explanation:
“Even in its simplest forms, CBD has no labeling standards or regulated dosage guidelines, and many businesses don’t disclose exactly how much they’ve put in a brownie or latte. At some businesses, customers have difficulty discerning which menu options include added CBD and which don’t.
According to Griffen Thorne, a California-based attorney who specializes in cannabis law, that lack of standardization is what makes most regulatory agencies nervous about CBD. “The packaging and labeling requirements aren’t there yet in states that don’t have a cannabis regime,” he told me when I spoke with him about CBD’s sudden popularity in food. “If you go buy a CBD beverage and it’s not specially packaged—it just looks like another coffee or whatever—someone might take a sip who doesn’t intend to.”
So the practice of adding a few drops of CBD oil to a food or beverage that doesn’t have a label on it, which is what restaurants and bars are essentially doing when they add a few drops of CBD oil on top of a steak or into somebody’s Bloody Mary, is being restricted
However, those same restaurants and bars are allowed to sell CBD oil in a bottle to patrons like in any other store
So restaurants can sell appropriately labeled CBD oil in a bottle and then a customer can add it to his food without violating any restrictions
So the ban on adding CBD to food in restaurants and bars has nothing to do with CBD itself and everything to do with the lack of labeling and transparency around adding it to a prepared food
So that’s 3 states, all with very different stories, all making moves to self-regulate Hemp-CBD in this brand new industry to prevent the need for any type of federal intervention
There is no FDA crackdown happening
AI
