Barrons
FEATURE
A New Bill Would Remove a CBD Roadblock for Marijuana Companies
By Bill Alpert
Jan. 15, 2020 11:14 am ET
A technician drops a sample of CBD into a jar.
A technician drops a sample of CBD into a jar.PHOTOGRAPH BY WALDO SWIEGERS/BLOOMBERG
CBD was supposed to be the next big multibillion-dollar thing for cannabis companies, after Congress legalized the soothing nonintoxicant a year ago. Expecting bonanzas, farmers in many legislators’ home states last year planted hemp, the newly-legal cannabis variety. Then the U.S. Food and Drug Administrationvoiced concerns about the ingredient. That has kept big retailers from filling their aisles with CBD foods, beverages, and dietary supplements.
This week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill that would order the FDA to allow the marketing of CBD—otherwise known as cannabidiol—as a dietary supplement and food additive. That would remove a regulatory roadblock that CBD specialists like Charlotte’s Web Holdings (ticker: CWEB.Canada) blame for slowing their sales growth.
When the 2019 Farm Bill legalized CBD, Wall Street said that CBD drinks, cosmetics, and pet foods would roll up more than $15 billion in annual sales. Coca-Cola (KO) and PepsiCo (PEP) were expected to launch CBD-infused beverages. Divisions were mustered up by cannabis pioneers Canopy Growth (CGC), Aurora Cannabis (ACB) and Tilray (TLRY). Cronos Group (CRON) controversially paid $300 million for a tiny CBD company partly-owned by its chief executive.
See our CBD coverage: CBD Is the New Marijuana. But Don’t Buy Into the Craze for Hemp Stocks.
But the FDA threw a wet blanket on the celebration when it said that companies might have to prove CBD was safe and effective before marketing food and drink with CBD health claims. A precedent had been set by GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH), when the FDA approved the company’s CBD-based treatment for seizures after lengthy clinical trials. The agency said it could take years to figure out how to regulate CBD.
That regulatory uncertainty kept mass merchandisers and grocers from committing to the new category. So on Wall Street, hemp became ho-hum.
The H.R. 5587 bill filed Monday by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota) would classify CBD as a dietary supplement, a class of products like vitamins that the FDA must allow on the market without the testing required of pharmaceuticals. Legislation to eliminate the hemp holdup would have many friendly backers, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who has championed hemp as a crop substitute for his state’s struggling tobacco farmers.
Write to Bill Alpert at william.alpert@barrons.com
