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.
6th November 2023: US - Florida: Just Brands, which markets CBD products under the brand Just CBD, is suing Florida authorities in federal court over a raid carried out by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) to enforce a new law prohibiting hemp-derived products that are attractive to children, press reports. Signed into law in June, Senate Bill (SB) 1676 prohibits the sale and distribution of hemp products that are attractive to children, which is defined as being in the form of a human, animal, or cartoon; bears “reasonable resemblance” to a known branded product; or contains any colour additive. However, Just Brands contends that it did not violate the law because those products were produced for sale in other states. This is the latest in a series of sweeps that the FDACS has made since SB 1676 took effect.
2nd November 2023: US - Virginia: A federal judge has denied an injunction against Virginia authorities that would have prevented them from enforcing a new law that restricts the amount of THC allowed in hemp products. Enacted in April, Senate Bill (SB) 903 includes all forms of THC in its 0.3% threshold for hemp products and caps the total amount of THC that hemp products can contain at either a maximum of 2 mg of total THC per package or an amount of CBD at least 25 times greater than the total amount of THC. Hemp industry members sued authorities to prevent the enforcement of SB 903, but with the denial of the injunction the new law may be enforced while the lawsuit is litigated.
26th October 2023: Italy: The Regional Administrative Tribunal (TAR) has 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 16th January 2024. On that day, the TAR will rule on the decree’s legitimacy.
26th October 2023: US - Federal: House Republicans have elected representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana as the new House speaker after the position vacancy stalled business in the House for three weeks. Johnson’s ascension to speaker does not bode well for cannabis reform, as he has consistently voted against all cannabis reform bills while in Congress, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). Specifically, Johnson has voted twice against previous iterations of the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, with its latest version (SAFER Banking Act) finally advancing in the Senate. Because Johnson will wield significant power over which bills receive a floor vote in the House, the chances of the SAFER Banking Act passing in the House appear bleak.
24th October 2023: UK: Today (24th October), the government announced that it accepts the advice on CBD consumer products from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), in particular, the recommendation to limit the dose of delta-9 THC – including delta-9 THCA and all other controlled phytocannabinoids – to 50 µg per unit of consumption. The government plans to put forward legislation that will have to be approved in Parliament.