New Farm Bill Legalizes Hemp And Shakes Up CBD Game
This past Wednesday, December 12, a new $867 billion farm bill officially passed in Congress. What makes it so important to the general public is that it legalizes the production, sale and distribution of industrial hemp at a federal level. Whaaaaat?
How The New Farm Bill Affects CBD-Lovers
One of the biggest reasons people have been pushing to legalize hemp is because it contains cannabidiol, aka CBD. In case you’re unfamiliar, CBD is a compound that has been flooding the market in the past year because of its health benefits, ability to naturally treat disorders like anxiety, ADHD and epilepsy, and the fact that it contains zero psychoactive effects like it’s cousin THC.
Back in the day, the infamous 1970 Controlled Substances Act categorized both marijuana and hemp as Schedule I drugs, meaning they did not (at the time) have any accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Fast forward to today and oodles of research debunking this notion and you get industrial hemp crossed off the Schedule I list, made a regular agricultural crop and allowed to be “cultivated for any use.” Thanks to the new farm bill, the production and extraction of CBD is included in that “any use.” Score!
What’s Next
Now it’s on to the FDA! The FDA needs to list CBD as “Generally Recognized as Safe” for it to be passed as a food additive or sold as a dietary supplement in major stores like Target or Walgreens. It also has to be accepted at a state level in certain jurisdictions that are not completely on board with the legalization of industrial hemp.
However, the U.S. Hemp Authority is working hard and all you CBD loyalists can expect to see a lot more CBD-infused products, including topicals and skincare products, hitting the shelves very soon. Just hang tight and rejoice in this massive step toward acceptance and legalization!
***NOTE: The new farm bill does not legalize the growth and sale of marijuana on a federal level, nor the CBD derived from it. Only CBD derived from hemp is legal under the new bill.
