9th July 2024: Italy: The Ministry of Health has issued a decree that repeals the previous decree that placed “the compositions for oral administration of cannabidiol obtained from Cannabis extracts” in the medicines tables of the Narcotic Act. The repealed decree was awaiting the Regional Administrative Tribunal (TAR) decision on its legitimacy, scheduled for September 2024. The new decree reproduces the same wording, placing “the compositions for oral administration of cannabidiol obtained from Cannabis extracts” in the medicines tables of the Narcotic Act. This decree demonstrates, once again, the hard-line stance against cannabis embraced by the Meloni government. We expect industry associations to appeal the decree before the TAR.
19th June 2024: Austria: The Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection has issued a health warning against the vaping products “CBD cartridge, Bedtime” and “CBD cartridge, Energize” from the manufacturer Euphoria Trade. According to the ministry, if the oil gets into the lungs when inhaled it can lead to serious respiratory diseases, and it has advised consumers not to use the products and dispose of them immediately.
11th June 2024: US - Massachusetts: The Massachusetts Department of Public Health and Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources recently issued a notice to stakeholders that the addition of CBD or THC to food and beverages is illegal, citing the stance of the US Food and Drug Administration on these food additives. State authorities have historically deferred to federal law on this issue, so it may not represent a policy change. However, the notice could serve as a warning for upcoming enforcement action. Authorities note, though, that the notice does not affect edible cannabis products that are regulated by the state Cannabis Control Commission.
5th June 2024: France: The National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) published a decision to classify new cannabinoids on the list of narcotics. As of 3rd June, the following cannabinoids are listed as narcotics: H2-CBD, H4-CBD, any cannabinoids derived from benzo[c]chromene (excluding cannabinol (CBN) and CBD), and eight other synthetic cannabinoids.
3rd May 2024: US - Federal: Federal authorities have made little progress implementing the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act, which was enacted in December 2022, to the dismay of the bill’s sponsors, press reports. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was required to submit a report within a year of the bill’s passage on the potential health benefits of cannabis, but that deadline has passed without any response from the HHS. “It’s embarrassing,” said Democratic member of the House Earl Blumenauer, one of the bill’s sponsors. “I’ve seen no evidence that they’re at work to make this research go much more smoothly.”
2nd May 2024: UK: The Food Safety Agency (FSA) Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes, an independent expert committee actively advising the FSA on matters pertaining to novel foods, has concluded that two applications for novel food authorisations, one containing pure natural CBD and another containing synthetic CBD, provided sufficient information to assure that they are safe under the proposed conditions of use, making them the first-ever applications to be granted the safety approvals from the committee.
15th April 2024: US - Federal: On 11th April, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner, Robert Califf, testified to the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability saying that the agency did not consider hemp-derived cannabidiol safe enough to be sold lawfully as a dietary supplement, and he urged Congress to create a new pathway to regulate these products. “It’s Congress’s decision to make, so we would really look forward to working with you all as quickly as possible to come up with a regulatory pathway that you think is reasonable and enables us to take action,” Califf said.
13th March 2024: US - Federal: Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and Andy Harris have sent a letter to Xavier Becerra, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Anne Milgram, chief administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) demanding answers about how cannabis research is being facilitated under the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act that was signed into law in December 2022. "It is unacceptable that researchers continue to face harmful barriers to cannabis research after Congress expressly removed obstacles to research into this substance", they wrote. The lawmakers further mentioned that more than 150 research applications for cannabis studies are pending decisions by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), while “many more researchers are excluded” due to the DEA’s onerous licensing requirements that have “not been adequately updated”.
5th February 2024: UK: The Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP) – an independent body of scientific experts that advises the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on any matters relating to novel foods and novel processes – will hold its next meeting on 7th February. The agenda states that the committee will review a draft safety assessment outcome for three different product submissions from the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA), Pureis, and Cannaray Limited. This indicates that the authorisation process could soon be finished and that the authorised novel food products will be available on the UK market in the near future.
26th January 2024: Italy: The Regional Administrative Tribunal (TAR) has again extended the suspension of the decree that places “the compositions for oral administration of cannabidiol obtained from Cannabis extracts” in the table of medicines in the Narcotics Act until 24th September 2024. On that day, the TAR should rule on the decree’s legitimacy.
19th January 2024: EU: The minutes of the March 2023 meeting of the European Commission (EC)'s Working Group on Cosmetic Products were published yesterday. In it, the discussion paper on the consequences of the Kanavape judgement on the cosmetics sector was discussed among member states. The preliminary position of the EC, as we anticipated, is that CBD can no longer be regarded as a controlled substance and thus should, in theory, be allowed in cosmetics. The minutes show that back in March 2023, there was a consensus to launch a call for scientific data on the safety of CBD and other hemp-derived products in cosmetics, which occurred in June 2023. Once this call for scientific data ends (October 2024), a mandate to the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) to assess the safety of CBD is expected to happen, as agreed by member states and forecasted by CannIntelligence.
27th November 2023: Canada: Health Canada approved the use of Epidiolex as an adjunct therapy for the treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), Dravet syndrome (DS), or tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) in patients aged two or older.