While scores of business-owners and thousands of anxious customers await any news from the federal bureaucracy as to how they will deal with hemp products, slow trickles of information continue to reach interested parties from the government.
Most recently, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, released a statement to members of the industry who kept sending inquiries about the legal status of CBD to the subdivision of the U.S. Treasury Department.
The release, which came at the end of April, told industry leaders that the TTB would fully follow the lead of the Food and Drug Administration. [1]
According to reporting from Marijuana Moment, the TTB’s response memo is most important when it comes to CBD’s use in food and drink, which came into vogue as a part of the bevy of new cannabis products on the market after the December passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. [1]
From possible Coca-Cola deals to craft breweries looking to toss CBD oil into their recipes, hemp products in food and drink have been the center of much of the controversy over regulations on the industry generally.
The Atlantic wrote in February about the growing scene for craft CBD cocktails, snacks and other trends that seemed primed for danger in the face of federal and municipal government overreaches, which consumers and retailers of CBD have since seen in spades. [2]
Restaurants, bartenders and mixologists across New York City were at the forefront of health inspector reactions early this year when they issued statements calling for the end to sales of CBD in foods and in some cases even pulled thousands of dollars of inventories from store shelves [2]
These developments aren’t alone. North Texas has seen crackdowns as well as local and municipal enforcements against retailers across the country that thought they were operating legally, and in some cases certainly were.
Now that the TTB has issued its memo on CBD in food and drink, those who hoped for another avenue of resolution must turn their sights back on the FDA, which has in past months taken the lead on rules for cannabidiol.
CBD has benefits many have come to rely on. People across the country are reaching for new CBD products for their pain, anxiety, insomnia and especially for forms of epilepsy. Unclear rulings on the topic endanger not only business interests but these real quality of life issues for countless Americans.
Before he retired, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said legislation may be needed to solve the CBD question in lieu of year of regulatory bartering and fine-tuning. For many who rely on hemp, these answers can’t come soon enough.
Sources
[1] https://www.marijuanamoment.net/federal-agency-clarifies-rules-on-adding-cbd-to-alcoholic-beverages/
[2] https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/02/new-york-city-cbd-crack-down/582193/
