Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell (R), a chief proponent of a hemp legalization provision in the 2018 Farm Bill, has put the pressure on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expedite the path for lawful marketing of hemp-derived CBD products. It's the latest push by the Senator to get CBD products more funding to educate consumers and to utilize the benefits in food items or dietary supplements.
Prior to today's movement from McConnell, the FDA has said that allowing CBD to be sold as food items or dietary supplements would require it to develop alternative regulations that could take years to complete if no congressional action was used.
McConnell's plan is to insert language into a congressional spending report that is asking the FDA to “issue a policy of enforcement discretion with regard to certain products containing CBD” within 120 days — something that will help stakeholders clarify rules, which, in effect, could make banks become more willing to service CBD companies.
Here's a look at the full report language from Mitch McConnell to the FDA:
“As previously mentioned, the Committee provides $2,000,000 for research, policy evaluation, market surveillance, issuance of an enforcement discretion policy, and appropriate regulatory activities with respect to products under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration which contain cannabidiol (CBD) and meet the definition of hemp, as set forth in section 297A of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (7 U.S.C