There is an influx in the market growth and consumer popularity of CBD. However, what is overlooked are the gritty details regarding the CBD’s legality. The 2018 Farm Bill that overwhelmingly passed in the U.S. Senate by Congress is great news for producers. For hemp growers and CBD-product manufacturers, the big news is hemp will no longer be equated under drug laws with its psychotropic cousin, marijuana. Industry-watchers wonder what this step could mean for future cannabis legalization.

Hemp-Derived Cbd Products

However, does it implicate that all the hemp-derived CBD products are now legal? The course is not as simple as it appears. It’s far more complicated than one could comprehend. Initially, CBD and hemp fell under Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Now it falls under the periphery of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Though the reform is an encouraging one, many of the producers have received warning letters from the FDA. In addition to this, the FDA has conducted several raids. Despite the warning letters and raids that were conducted, the CBD products have emerged triumphant in making their way to shelves everywhere from small joints to larger retailers like Vitamin Shoppe.

This is just the beginning as many more are expected to collaborate in the CBD industry, and those existing are manifesting their efforts in making their positions in what is estimated to become a massive market. So, was the CBD industry already legal, legalized in December, or is it yet to be legal? To analyze this, there has been discussions with several members of the industry. This analysis has helped to chalk out a clearer and better perspective as to how they view the Farm Bill and if it is impacting their current and future plans.

“NOW EVERY COMPANY, INCLUDING BIG PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES, WILL PROBABLY SEE THE NEW FARM BILL AS A GREEN LIGHT TO ENTER THE INDUSTRY.”

Opinions: Legalized Hemp And CBD

Drawing from the words of Rick Weissman, President of Highfalls Extracts to CBD Today, it appears that the 2014 Farm Bill really opened the door on legalized hemp and CBD. This provided the President with the courage and confidence to produce CBD products, but the new bill is now giving him plenty of reassurance. “We were comfortable operating in this space already,” Weissman said. “The 2018 bill removes all of the ambiguity about the legal status of hemp and CBD.”

The company produces CBD tinctures, topicals, lotions, and soft-gels and is licensed by New York to cultivate hemp for CBD extraction and are official research partners with the state. The HighFalls President predicts that there would be a flooding of the new companies looking to make profit from CBD. “Now every company, including big pharmaceutical companies, will probably see the new farm bill as a green light to enter the industry,” Weissman said. He further went on saying that those who have a consistent track record of getting a third-party lab testing would acquire customers’ trust conveniently.

Another spokesperson from the industry, Guy Rocourt, who is the Co -Founder and Chief Products Officer Papa & Barkley said, “The new regulations have allowed Papa & Barkley to enter honestly into the national CBD market, not just the California market. Now we have a whole CBD-only line of products made from hemp that we can offer to individuals all over the United States. While hemp infused products have been on the market for quite some time, Papa and Barkley waited to launch our CBD line until we could legally and truthfully promote and sell our CBD offerings.

While agricultural hemp is not the best for extracting CBD, it is an awesome renewable resource for a variety of industrial and commercial products like bio-plastics, bio-diesel, and paper, cloth, and food sources.” According to him, the Farm Bills will help in the expansion of their company. Papa & Barkley is a California based CBD producer which deals in the products providing pain relief. Rocourt is more hopeful that the Bill would escort in more testing and scientific scrutiny.

Expressing his anguish and annoyance in the companies whose major goals are to benefit from CBD and have the least to do with the production of safe qualities, Rocourt said, “Usually these companies use imported CBD isolate that has been processed with many chemicals and has not been tested.” He, however, holds faith in the proper scrutiny by the FDA which would solve this problem. Quoting Dave Rodman, attorney, and founder of Rodman Law Group LLC, “The new legislation never specifically mentions cannabidiol or CBD. It just allowed for hemp to have a different legal status based on its THC content and treats compounds extracted from hemp differently than compounds extracted from marijuana.

The Farm Bill legalized the extraction of chemical compounds [like CBD] from Cannabis Sativa L.” Rodman is associated with the firm in various practice areas one of which includes the cannabis law. The firm does not have any products at stake when it comes to CBD but wants producers to have a clear understanding of the legal landscape. He further asserts that there is full proof assurance that the CBD operations are risk free. “You should always be afraid of the legal consequences of a product you make, especially one that is ingested by humans and animals. It all comes down to their risk tolerance.

Some producers are more risk tolerant and believe that the risks are acceptable because by acting now they can get out ahead and grab a chunk of the market share.”Improper medical claims, as well as the CBD, infused foods by the producers, is the main reason for carrying out raids by the FDA. The recent warning letters by the FDA affirms this. “The FDA will eventually come to grips with the fact that the cannabinoid genie has been let out of the bottle. The industry is not going away, and the FDA will need to correct course in order to remain relevant and actually do its job of ensuring that the products consumed by humans and animals are safe,” Rodman said.A public hearing on hemp and CBD’s legal status is likely to be held by the FDA on the 31st of May. There are hopes that this hearing would help resolve many of the industry’s outstanding questions.

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