Tag: CBD

As if the confusion over Novel food in the EU was not daunting enough! The news just surfaced late last week that the European Commission has delayed 50 CBD-related Novel food applicants through September to consider the question of whether CBD extracted from the plant should be considered a narcotic.

The directive only applies to food items containing naturally occurring CBD and not synthetic cannabidiol.

Novel food regulations in the EU apply to any products not widely consumed before 1997.

If the EC qualifies hemp plants, even with less than 0.2% as a narcotic (the amount of THC allowed in hemp and as set by the region’s regulators, then the entire conversation has entered the next loopy diversion.

For the past several years, European level conversation about hemp has led to a strange stand-off between regional regulators and individual countries who have continued down the path of greater access and normalization. Namely, as of now, the (non-binding) legal guidance on the status of hemp on the EU side of the Channel is that anything hemp oil-related that is not pressed from seeds (in other words from the flowers and leaves of the plant) is “Novel.”

This alone has been disruptive for the industry – including country-wide health departments and downstream, state, and municipal guidance based on the same. The City of Cologne, for example, just banned all CBD extracts not labeled as novel food. Depending on the Commission’s decision in September, this might be the conversation about all things CBD that is extracted in any way, from the plant that effectively bans CBD for sale across Europe.

Legalization Has Taken A Sideways Move In Europe

There are two reasons for the industry to be concerned. 

The first is that the entire CBD discussion is clearly going to be mired in this kind of ridiculous contretemps for some time to come – especially if the World Health Organization decides to reschedule THC in December. 

Even framing the conversation in the terms that it now is – namely is CBD Novel food or narcotic -  is also a particularly strange way to characterize a plant that has been in use for both medical and recreational purposes for more than a millennia.

Such an avenue of discussion is clearly intended to iron out the many wrinkles that still exist in reforming regulation. It is also clearly intended to throw havoc into the ever-evolving parallel conversation that is clearly on the drawing board here – namely recreational reform.

If every cannabinoid extracted from the cannabis sativa is a narcotic, the entire discussion will be thrown sideways into a regulatory no man’s land that will take a decade to get unstuck. It is doubtful that individual countries in Europe, starting with Luxembourg, will allow that to happen, or to wait that long. Much less the nascent industry.

For more updates on the evolving European cannabis space, stay tuned to this blog and be sure to book your tickets to the International Cannabis Business Conference when it returns to Europe.

The internet has revolutionized the way people get information, and that is true for cannabis information just as it is for everything else. Positive information about cannabis was purposefully suppressed for many decades around the world for political purposes.

That strategy has become increasingly difficult to carry out because of how easily accessible cannabis information is on the internet. Cannabis advocates can find answers to virtually any cannabis questions and can then disseminate that information all over the web for others to benefit from.

It is likely not a coincidence that cannabis reform victories have paralleled the rise in popularity of the internet. Popularity for CBD has specifically spiked in recent years, and it is likely that the internet has played a huge role in that rise in popularity. Read more about it in our recent article on Cannabis & Tech Today.

The popularity of CBD has increased exponentially in the last few years. For many decades consumers focused on THC, however, that has evolved a great deal in the second half of this decade.

CBD has been billed as possessing a number of wellness qualities, with some claims being well-founded and others not. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of misinformation out there about CBD. That is what happens when an industry is growing at a rapid pace and people are scrambling to try to build their fortune from riding an industry wave.

As far as CBD has come in recent years, it is still a very young industry and savvy entrepreneurs know that the landscape is going to shift a lot in the coming years. 2019 was a record year for hemp licensing in the United States, as recently reported by Vote Hemp:

“Since the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp cultivation in the U.S. has grown rapidly. The number of acres of hemp licensed across 34 states totaled 511,442 in 2019—more than quadruple the number of acres licensed from the previous year. State licenses to cultivate hemp were issued to 16,877 farmers and researchers, a 476% increase over 2018.”

The acres of hemp that survived are about to be harvested (or already have been) and a significant amount of the hemp is going to end up being sourced to make CBD products. More United States CBD products are about to flood the market than ever before.

It begs the question – what impact, if any, will that have on the prices for CBD products in the United States? In a long-established industry, an influx of supply would lower the price. However, the CBD industry is different because it is so new.

More and more consumers are using CBD products with every passing day. It’s possible that consumer demand in the United States will grow alongside the increase in the number of CBD products in the marketplace and perhaps exceed supply.

It’s also possible that demand could lag compared to how much supply is hitting the market, and market prices could get slashed to calculate for it. Many farmers and entrepreneurs have placed a lot of hopes and resources into this year’s hemp harvest with most eyes on the CBD market. It will be interesting to compare CBD prices from earlier this year to whatever prices are at around the end of the calendar year.

One thing is for sure, the popularity of CBD is going to continue to increase into the foreseeable future, and that’s good news for entrepreneurs that can successfully navigate the shifting landscape.