CBD bills return to Congress
Reps. Morgan Griffith (VA) and Angie Craig (MN) have reintroduced two bi-partisan bills that would regulate CBD at the federal level.
Specifically, the CBD Product Safety and Standardization Act would direct the FDA to regulate CBD the same way the FDA would any other food ingredient. The Hemp and Hemp-Derived CBD Consumer Protection and Market Stabilization Act would take a dietary supplement regulatory approach.
“The Food and Drug Administration has dragged its feet in properly regulating CBD and hemp-derived products on the market, creating confusion about its legal uses,” Griffith said in a statement. “Americans need better guidance and that is why I have introduced these two pieces of legislation, which will create a pathway for regulation in both the food and dietary supplement spaces.”
The appetite to regulate CBD at the federal level is stronger than ever before, especially given the FDA’s decision that it would not create the rules to guide the existing, sprawling CBD industry, but would instead “work” with Congress for such guardrails.
SEC charges former grilled cheese company turned cannabis biz.
The Securities and Exchange Commission late last week charged American Patriot Brands Inc. (APB) along with a handful of others related to their “participation in a long-running scheme in which they raised more than $30 million from more than one hundred investors across the country and siphoned off millions of those funds to enrich themselves.”
APB now has a website listed under construction but previously described itself as a “gourmet grilled cheese food truck company.”
Among the allegations: the company made false or misleading statements to investors about the “scope” of its cannabis operations, including the “value of its Oregon cannabis farm.”
In a surprise turn, Kentucky’s Senate swiftly passes medical cannabis bill.
As we recently reported in this newsletter, the Kentucky Senate for the very first time considered a medical cannabis bill on Tuesday, and the Senate Licensing & Occupations Committee passed the bill, SB 47, during that first hearing.
Then, late last week, at the last possible moment, the full Senate passed the bill on to the House, marking yet another unprecedented step in the state.
When the legislature reconvenes later this month, the House will have two days to pass the bill.
While this move by the Senate came as somewhat of a surprise, there were hints that the chamber might warm up. Republican Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer on Tuesday praised the bill’s “narrowly focused approach” and, despite previous opposition on the issue, lent his support.
The bill’s limitations include, for example, not allowing home cultivation, and the lists of qualifying conditions and approved products are narrow.
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear has pushed lawmakers for years to get on board with medical cannabis, but they’ve been reluctant. As a result, he signed an executive order in November that gave some Kentucky residents the right to possess up to eight ounces of medical cannabis.
