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When legislators signed the 2018 Farm Bill into law in December 2018, it included provisions from the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 that removed industrial hemp—defined as Cannabis sativa bred to have less than 0.3 percent of the psychoactive cannabinoid tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)—from the list of Schedule I controlled substances, thereby making it a legal agricultural commodity. This development immediately catalyzed efforts to start using hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive cannabinoid with multiple promising health benefits, in foods and beverages nationwide.
However, the Farm Bill explicitly preserved FDA’s authority to regulate products containing cannabis or cannabis-derived compounds under the FD&C Act. So while food and beverage products containing CBD have hit the market with unprecedented force since the Farm Bill’s passage, these products remain adulterated in FDA’s view and are prohibited from entering interstate commerce. FDA’s reluctance to approve cannabis-derived ingredients for use in foods and beverages essentially boils down to consumer safety.