Promising Smoke Signals from the FDA on CBD

As 2022 comes to a close, the FDA has signaled that the new year may offer some promise for the long-awaited regulation of hemp-derived extracts such as CBD.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, as analyzed extensively in Marijuana Moment, top FDA officials revealed that the agency plans to release a regulatory assessment of CBD and other hemp-derived products in the coming months. The officials shared their continuing reservations about product safety – particularly concerning intoxicating compounds like delta-8 THC. However, one comment offered particular hope: Norm Birenbaum, the senior public health advisor at the agency’s Center for Regulatory Programs (whose recent hiring we lauded here) echoed the sentiment that the Roundtable has been pressing for years:

“I don’t think that we can have the perfect be the enemy of the good when we’re looking at such a vast market that is so available and utilized…You’ve got a widely unregulated market”

U.S. Hemp Roundtable leadership will be meeting with the FDA in early January as part of our continuing dialogue on what a regulatory scheme should entail. But more significantly – especially given the FDA’s continuing suggestion that new legislative authority may be needed — we will be working with our key congressional sponsors, such as Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA), to introduce legislation in the new Congress that establishes a regulatory pathway for CBD and other hemp extracts.

We, of course, will be enlisting you in our advocacy efforts in January. Until then, we wish you the happiest of new years and the hopes that 2023 will be a bright one for the hemp industry.