Some years back, promising medical research on the non-psychoactive cannabinoid CBD ignited huge interest in the emergence of cannabis (or cannabinoid) medicines with no high.
For activists it enlarged medicinal cannabis’ toolkit. Growers and dispensaries began to focus on high CBD/low THC strains and preparations.
To those who saw medical initiatives as “stalking horses for Colorado” it offered a fallback compromise position. “CBD only medicines will be good enough” at least “until all the science comes in” they argued.
Pharma companies saw a single molecule agent that the FDA would be happy to have studied for approval as a patented prescription drug.
So it energized all of the existing players and raised the stakes.
And then a new phenomenon came into play. In 2014 a federal farming act defined hemp products with less than 0.3% THC as “not marijuana.” This is an arbitrary standard, but the same as the one imported hemp food and textile products from Canada have been meeting for longer than that.
Hemp entrepreneurs saw a potentially huge opportunity to expand what had been a small grey market into now openly promoted over-the-counter hemp-derived CBD medicines, even though hemp is a sub-optimal CBD source for many reasons.
Suddenly, completely unregulated, untested CBD preparations sprang up everywhere – in store fronts, online, from your neighbor’s new multi-level-marketing franchise, etc.
In response the DEA, despite the Farm Bill, classified CBD products as a Schedule 1 Narcotics, as cannabis still is. And since then the Hemp Industry Association (HIA) has sued the DEA. Now heading to the upcoming court date in the article.
So….
Are CBD products subject to DEA control/enforcement, or drugs requiring FDA approval… …or dispensary products subject to a patchwork of state cannabis laws…
…or… …is “hemp CBD oil” already “50 state legal” whatever the DEA says… …and could the resolution turn out to be something else…??
We’re about to get closer to a legal answer and it’s going to effect the whole cannabis sector, though an appeal by either side seems likely.
As always TRUCE’s interest is in safe and legal access to medicines for all patients, and in this case, safe means that if CBD isolate medicines are to be widely available, they should be as subject to testing for safety, purity and accurate ingredient labeling as any other powerful OTC medicine like ibuprofen or antacids. Take care of yourselves out there, please…!
#MMJ #CBD #TRIAL #UTpol #TRUCE
See full article – Is CBD a drug? DEA hemp battle gets February court date
