January 2020

With the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill which makes hemp legal at the federal level, it’s even more confusing whether your CBD oil is legal or not. Since the bill makes hemp and hemp products legal at the federal level, the DEA has descheduled cannabidiol (CBD), a non-intoxicating, non-addicting, compound with anti-inflammatory, muscle relaxing, anxiolytic, as well as other medical benefits. In addition, the FDA has approved Epidiolex (CBD) for the treatment of seizures in patients with Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut. So now we have three FDA approved drugs available in the US that consist of single ingredients – CBD (Epidiolex) and THC (Marinol, Cesamet,), that are Schedule 5 and Schedule 3, respectively, yet if they are found in the cannabis plant, they are still Schedule l.  It seems that the FDA is reserving reprimand for companies that produce hemp oil with CBD  that make medical claims not supported by clinical trials or for infusing it into food and/or beverages.

I want to assure all of my patients that the hemp products I recommend are derived from cannabis plants that produces less than 0.3% THC and in some cases have zero THC and by definition, that is hemp. And also be assured that the industrial hemp used to produce these oils is grown legally under the The Federal Farm Bill of 2018 or is imported legally from abroad.