CBD Product Influx Vexes FDA

March 27, 2019
NACS online

The agency has been overwhelmed with the explosion of marijuana and hemp extract cannabidiol products flooding the marketplace.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The burgeoning market for hemp extract cannabidiol and marijuana products has become a thorn in the side of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), as the line between dietary supplement and drug becomes fuzzier, Politico reports.
CBD has infused sleep aids, hair conditioners, lattes, drops and ointments that claim to battle cancer and manage diabetes, among other health claims. Online and bricks-and-mortar retailers, like CVS Health, are stocking CBD products, even before the agency has figured out how to regulate the market.
“The market has overwhelmed the agency’s limited enforcement resources here,” said Marc Scheineson, an attorney with Alston & Bird and a former associate FDA commissioner. “CBD has captured the public imagination.”
While the agency has approved only a single CBD-based drug, Epidiolex, to treat epilepsy, many other products fall under the more loosely-regulated dietary supplements category. What’s vexing the FDA is where to focus manpower in the CBD products arena.
Departing FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb hasn’t formally given a clear CBD pathway, but he did tell Congress that the agency is putting together an advisory group and will hold a public meeting next month on the issue. He cautioned that figuring out the answers to these questions will likely take years.
Numerous CBD makers are proceeding with care until a clearer picture of what the agency will do comes into focus. “They can’t have the laissez-faire market they have now where it’s being put in everything included food,” Scheineson said. “There are a lot of policymakers looking at this now, and it’s inevitable that the government will not keep its hand off of this for much longer.”
Each week, NACS Daily brings you a roundup news and information on cannabis and CBD to help update you on the fast-moving products and their legality. For more on how the legalization of recreational marijuana may affect the c-store industry, see the February 2019 issue of NACS Magazine.