A coalition of hemp-industry organizations is calling on a House Committee to hold an hearing addressing the lack of Food and Drug Administration regulations for products containing CBD and other constituents from the crop.
In a letter to House Energy and Commerce Committee leadership, 28 state and federal nonprofits focused on hemp and nutritional supplements stated that “the time for hearing has never beeen riper”, to examine regulatory paths that FDA could implement to allow the lawful marketing hemp products for both humans and animals.
The groups stated that “in the five years following the legalization hemp by the 2018 Farm Bill and despite a designated annual budget, the FDA did not take any meaningful steps towards the regulation of hemp, whether it is animal feed or extracts like CBD for human consumption.”
The FDA stated last year that after a thorough review it found that it did not have the necessary authority to set regulations for hemp and CBD markets. It also said that additional congressional support would be required.
The letter states that “Thousands of unregulated products are still being sold, which is causing confusion among consumers and giving the bad actors an advantage over good-faith manufacturers who wish to follow the rules and provide healthy products.”
The House Energy and Commerce and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committees responded to FDA inaction by putting out a request for information (RIF) for experts on the best way forward for regulating Hemp. Hundreds of respondents shared their perspectives and recommendations.
The organizations stated in the letter that their staff had “months to review and weigh these recommendations.” They added that “Energy & Commerce” must be involved for meaningful action to take place.
They said: “We were assured on several occasions that a hearing for Energy & Commerce would be held, but now is the perfect time to hold one.” We urge you to immediately hold a public hearing in front of your committee to bring the RFI ideas into the public eye and to give your members an opportunity to comment on the critical issues that need to be resolved to ensure the survival of the hemp industry and to protect public health and safety.
“The FDA’s lack of action is harming farmers and putting the safety of consumers at risk. The lack of regulation has also caused U.S. Farmers to suffer economically, as commodity prices have fallen by over 90% across the board. This delay has caused significant problems for downstream hemp products, including fibers and grains that are used in construction materials, bioplastics biofuels, and food ingredients. Lack of regulatory certainty will be even more of a crisis in the future, with the potential rescheduling for marijuana. This will affect farmers, consumers, state officials, and law enforcement.
More than two dozen organizations, including the Hemp Industries Association, National Cannabis Industry Association, National Industrial Hemp Council and U.S. Hemp Roundtable have signed .
It is not easy to bring together the hemp industry today around a common goal. Jonathan Miller, the general counsel of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable said in a Wednesday press release that the 28 organizations who signed the letter agreed on the need for FDA to act now and regulate hemp products. The fate of the whole industry — hemp extracts, fibre, seed, etc. — depends on regulatory oversight. We urge House Energy & Commerce, to take quick action by holding a hearing soon to address these issues.
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Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Earl Blumenauer filed legislation last July to remove regulatory barriers that FDA claims prevent it from allowing hemp marketing. Last July, Ron Wyden (DOR), Rand Paul(R-KY), Jeff Merkley(DOR) and Rep. Earl Blumenauer’s (DOR), together with Rep. Earl Blumenauer filed legislation that would eliminate regulatory barriers FDA claims prevents them from allowing hemp marketing.
The House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services also held an hearing on FDA’s inaction on CBD last year. This was a unique meeting, where members from both parties criticized the FDA’s position.
The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, or NASDA, is also calling for Congress to raise the THC limit on legal hemp as part of its 2024 policy priority.
Stakeholders and legislators from both sides of the aisle have long criticized the 0.3 percent THC hemp limit that was set under the 2018 Farm Bill, which federally legalized this crop. One Justice Department researcher questioned the reasoning behind the restriction and suggested that it was based on an article from the 1950s which was adopted as federal law.
The Congressional Research Service recently explained how different policy priorities among industry stakeholder could complicate the task updating the next Farm Bill’s hemp provisions. However, there are many areas of agreement between the top industry groups.
One of these shared interests is amending law to increase the THC limitation to one percent for hemp that complies with the law. This proposal was also addressed by a separate bill from Rep. Chellie Pingree (D, ME) 2022.
Uncertain if Congress will tackle the Farm Bill in 2018. The 2018 version of the Farm Bill was due to expire by the end last year. However, it was extended through a bill signed by President Joe Biden.
Other hemp bills have been filed in this session, which lawmakers could also incorporate into the larger agricultural legislation.
A bipartisan bill filed in March aims to stop what critics call a “discriminatory federal policy ” that prohibits people with previous felony drug convictions, from owning or running legal hemp businesses.
Another measure, introduced last year with bipartisan sponsors, would lower regulations on farmers who grow industrial hemp non-extraction.
Recent reporting may also lead to additional reforms, since it has come to light that USDA is revoking hemp licenses from businesses who hold dual state licenses.
Despite the economic conditions, however, a recent report found that a data-google-interstitial=”false” href=”https://www.marijuanamoment.net/sales-of hemp derived cannabinoids like cbd are outpacing legal marijuana and are on par with craft beer –report findings/” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank>the hemp market in 2022 was larger than all state marijuana A recent report, despite the economic conditions, found that in 2022, the hemp market was larger than the state marijuana markets and roughly equaled the sales of craft beer nationwide.
As part of its annual data-collection initiative, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began sending thousands of surveys to hemp farmers in the United States Monday.
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Photo by Brendan Cleak.
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