Great News for Hemp Products in New York

Early yesterday morning, the New York State Department of Health released its long-awaited proposed regulations for hemp extract and cannabinoid hemp products such as CBD.

While we haven’t had the chance yet to pore over the 63-page document – and the devil’s in the details – we are thrilled to report two highlights:

• What’s there: Following on the heels of Kentucky, New York will become the latest state to explicitly authorize the retail sale of dietary supplements,food, and beverages that contain CBD or other cannabinoids. This is particularly notable when it comes to food and beverages given recent enforcement actions by the New York City Department of Health taken against restaurants serving such products. Of note: New York would become the first state to impose limits for food and beverage products (25 mg ofcannabinoids per product).
• What’s not there: Early discussions of the regulations raised concerns about the potential imposition of age restrictions on ingestible and cosmetic hemp products – a provision which would have been inappropriate and bad for farmers, businesses and consumers. Thanks to advocacy efforts led by the Roundtable and some of its members (read our white paper here), we are pleased that age restrictions on ingestibles and cosmetics are not in the current proposal.

We still have much work to do examining and analyzing these proposed regulations, and we will be filing comments as part of the public process scheduled to begin November 10th. Once we do, we will enlist you in our comments submission process which will expire on January 11, 2021. In the meantime, please review the regulations yourself and send us any of your thoughts.

We are grateful to Governor Andrew Cuomo and his excellent team for their thoughtful and sophisticated approach to regulating hemp and CBD. We are especially thankful for their responsiveness to stakeholder concerns, including the interests of New York hemp farmers, businesses and consumers. We look forward to working with the Administration in the comments process to ensure that the final version is strong for New York and can serve as a model for the nation.