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Schumer calls for FDA regulations for CBD

By Daniel Axelrod
Times Herald-Record

Posted Oct 23, 2019 at 8:05 PM

The Food and Drug Administration has been “woefully inadequate” in setting regulations for the cannabis compound cannabidiol, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer told the agency in a Wednesday letter.

In a Wednesday conference call about the letter, Schumer said FDA inaction is stalling job creation and commerce in New York, particularly in the mid-Hudson, which is fast becoming the epicenter for growing the hemp from which CBD is derived.

CBD has shown promise for treating pain, inflammation, psychiatric conditions, alcohol and opiate use disorders, among other maladies, though research is nascent.

CBD comes from hemp, which is cannabis, the same plant as marijuana, that has been bred to include nearly no THC, pot’s high-producing chemical.

With the 2018 Farm Bill’s passage, Congress legalized hemp for industrial purposes, while leaving it to the FDA to regulate CBD.

CBD is state-legal in New York for research and as medicine via state-licensed dispensaries. But it’s federally illegal for medicinal purposes, except for the anti-seizure drug Epidiolex, which is the only FDA-approved CBD medicine.

Schumer attributed the FDA not releasing CBD guidelines to under-staffing and the agency buying into the stigma surrounding hemp, despite it not being marijuana.

“Once the feds spell out the ABCs of CBD, we can sit back and watch this promising industry grow and create jobs from one end of New York to the other,” Schumer said.

America’s hemp-CBD market could grow to $2.5 billion or more in 2022 from $820 million in 2017, according to New Frontier Data, a research firm.

Currently, 18,000 acres of land are licensed for industrial hemp growing in New York, with 14,000 designated for CBD cultivation and extraction, according to Schumer’s office.

Many of those acres are in the mid-Hudson, particularly in Orange and Ulster counties. Few farms in the Town of Warwick lack hemp, in large part because of the Orange County Industrial Development Agency.

The nonprofit, which promotes economic growth, projects that by May it will have helped create 200 local CBD-related jobs.

The IDA has been swiftly attracting millions of dollars of investments for its Accelerator incubator to nurture a CBD and hemp business cluster at the former Mid-Hudson Correctional Facility in Warwick.

If the FDA decides to regulate CBD as a drug, the fledgling industry could be impeded because each new product would require copious, time-consuming research, said Vincent Cozzolino, managing director of the IDA and its Accelerator.

But if the FDA treats CBD as a supplement – like minerals, vitamins and other natural substances taken to augment a diet – the CBD industry could explode, Cozzolino said.

“Right now, people are worried that the FDA will do something that will keep the industry from taking its course,” Cozzolino said. “We can accommodate almost any (scenario). We just need to know” how the FDA wants to treat CBD.

Asked for a response to Schumer, an FDA spokesman emailed a Tuesday tweet from Dr. Amy Abernethy, the FDA’s deputy commissioner.

“The FDA’s working quickly to further clarify our regulatory approach for products with cannabis/cannabis-derivatives like CBD, while using all available resources to monitor the marketplace and protect public health by taking action as needed against companies” selling CBD, Abernethy tweeted.

Source: https://www.recordonline.com/news/20191023/schumer-calls-for-fda-regulations-for-cbd