“Industrial hemp is now legal in the U.S., which advocates hope could eventually loosen laws around the popular marijuana extract CBD.
President Donald Trump signed the 2018 farm bill on Thursday [Dec. 20, 2018] afternoon, which legalized hemp — a variety of cannabis that does not produce the psychoactive component of marijuana…
For now, however, it appears that CBD will remain largely off-limits. The Food and Drug Administration issued a statement saying that despite the new status of hemp, CBD is still considered a drug ingredient and remains illegal to add to food or health products without the agency’s approval.”
“The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 changes certain federal authorities relating to the production and marketing of hemp, defined as cannabis (Cannabis sativa L.), and derivatives of cannabis with extremely low (less than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis) concentrations of the psychoactive compound delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). These changes include removing hemp from the Controlled Substances Act, which means that it will no longer be an illegal substance under federal law. However, Congress explicitly preserved the agency’s current authority to regulate products containing cannabis or cannabis-derived compounds.”