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A new bill in Congress seeks to regulate CBD as a dietary supplement.
Congress members Rep. Morgan Griffith, a Republican of Virginia, and Rep. Kurt Schrader, a Democrat of Oregon, introduced the Hemp and Hemp-Derived CBD Consumer Protection and Market Stabilization Act of 2020.
The bill, if passed, would make hemp, hemp-derived CBD, and “other hemp-derived products lawful for use unless otherwise directed by the Food and Drug Administration.” That last bit is important, and worth highlighting, as the hemp industry is waiting on FDA rules that could have sweeping ramifications for the hemp and CBD industries.
“Hemp was historically an important crop for Virginia farmers, and dietary supplements made from it do not possess dangerous addictive qualities. Nevertheless, the current state of regulation creates confusion about its legal uses. I joined this bipartisan bill to provide certainty for hemp farmers that their crop may find legal uses,” Griffith said in a statement.
MADD releases a cannabis and driving report.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving recently released a report on cannabis-impaired driving, called The Cannabis Report: America’s Perception on Consumption and Road Risk. The survey at the core of the report was completed with funding from State Farm and General Motors.
This February, 1,020 survey respondents, distributed across states with legal and illegal cannabis, answered MADD’s questions about cannabis and driving. One key takeaway is that 41% of respondents viewed driving after consuming cannabis as safer than doing so after consuming alcohol. And 83% said there should be more research on cannabis-impaired driving.
The report notes that Colorado residents, where adult use sales went live in 2014, “stand out as being significantly more knowledgeable about the effects of” cannabis-impaired driving, which speaks to the public education efforts of the state’s regulators.
Of note is the fact that MADD in Canada has partnered on education and outreach with the cannabis industry, for example, Tweed, and also others like Uber.
Florida’s medical cannabis program now has more than 400,000 patients.
In an update from the Office of Medical Marijuana Use, state regulators highlighted that there are now 404,780 legal medical cannabis patients in the Sunshine State. There are 2,583 physicians registered to make medical cannabis recommendations.
The three top companies in the state are, in order: Trulieve with 57 dispensing locations, Parallel (Surterra Wellness) with 39, and Curaleaf with 33.
+ ICYMI: Cannabis Wire’s analysis on Trulieve’s strategy in the southern US.
On that note: edibles officially allowed in Florida.
Florida’s cannabis industry has eagerly awaited regulations for medical cannabis edibles, which officially went into effect.
The Office of Medical Marijuana Use site was updated to read: “Effective August 27, 2020, edibles as a route of administration is available to qualified patients.”
You can read the emergency rule here.
California regulators launch “This is California Cannabis” campaign.
California’s Department of Food and Agriculture launched the campaign in an effort to bolster legal cannabis cultivators and to “highlight the support and guidance” they provide for growers seeking to become legal.
Anyone paying attention to cannabis in California knows that illegal cultivators and retailers pose a serious threat to the licensed and legal market, and still make up for the majority of cannabis activity in the state. This is in part due to the fact that a majority of California jurisdictions still ban commercial cannabis activity.
“’This is California Cannabis’ celebrates the passion and hard work of licensed cannabis growers and highlights how we’re all working together to protect and promote the health, safety and quality of the industry,” CDFA Secretary Karen Ross said in the announcement.
The campaign will feature licensed growers, “from legacy outdoor farms in rural Humboldt to high-tech, vertically-integrated operations in urban locations.”
Richard Parrott, the director of CDFA’s CalCannabis Cultivation Licensing Division, added, “California is known for growing the best cannabis in the world and our licensed cultivators are leading the way with innovative practices and environmental sustainability.”
