The FDA has said it may make an exception for CBD, allowing it as a food additive or dietary supplement even though it is now a listed drug. It will hold a public forum on the issue in Maryland on May 31.
With the conflicting rules and at best haphazard enforcement, Holm and other CBD vendors say they are pressing ahead, devising their own strategies that they feel are at least a gesture toward compliance.
Igor Yakovlev, who stirs CBD into honey on New York’s Staten Island, prints a disclaimer on each Beezy Beez Honey jar stating that the FDA has not “evaluated or approved” his product.
Holm, in consultation with a lawyer, noted that the FDA bans CBD being added to food for “interstate commerce,” and reasons she is fine to sell CBD coffee so long as the extract is produced and processed in New York.
“It is so confusing because you can ask three different attorneys and get three different answers,” said Allan Gandelman, a farmer in Cortland who founded the New York Cannabis Growers and Processors Association earlier this year. “So you decide you’re going to blaze a path forward, and produce a product that customers really want, and go for it until the government gets its act together.”
Just legalize it completely already, Jesus. CBD doesn’t even have any recreational value. Who cares if it’s in a candy bar or a pill?