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Cutting through the CBD hype

CBD News

Rob Gronkwoski – CBD Spokesman – Why aren’t there more professional athletes supporting CBD?

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This makes sense.

Gronkowski suffered from multiple, and some of them very serious, injuries during his career and one of the primary selling points for CBD is that it helps to relieve pain.

However, I think the more interesting thing about this is that Gronkowski waited until after he had retired to become a spokesman for a CBD company. Even though CBD is in a seemingly ever-changing grey area legally, it’s a product that seems to have wide ranging support from many parts of the economy.

For Gronkowski, and I would suspect most other professional athletes in a major sport, I have to think that becoming a spokesperson for a CBD brand is frowned upon, if not against contract (there are some current professional athletes who are open about their CBD use but most are retired). Even if CBD were completely legal I think it will take some time for there to be a popular professional athlete who will be a spokesperson for a CBD brand.

CBD Mania

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Look at that picture; that’s a really small sample of the news items from Google about CBD. The New York Times just published an article about how the CBD industry has lax oversight; a Former FDA chief says that putting CBD into food is illegal; Ars Technica discussing how the FDA is responding to fallacious claims. Then you go down a little bit further in the page and there are more stories about the legality of CBD, one story about how jumping out of a plane turned a CBD skeptic into a CBD proponent, and a piece from LA Magazine about how CBD marketers have become “snake oil salesman”.

My deepest concern here is that the narrative has drastically gotten away from the companies that are being responsible and trying to make legitimate claims about their CBD products and, instead, has been hijacked by unscrupulous companies that are looking to cash in on the CBD mania while the getting is good.

And whether that is the case, or, more accurately, how prevalant are the “snake oil salesman”-esque marketers out there? And does that even matter? I ask that last question because the media can latch onto a few key data points or spokesmen and paint whatever picture they want. If you want the CBD industry to look bad there are probably ample examples of companies that are being downright dishonest in their marketing.

What should CBD companies do? Continue to be truthful in your marketing. Push for fair and clear regulations for the industry. Keep the conversation with customers going and bring attention to the successes and the failures.

Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Bans Most CBD Products

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If you are benefitting from CBD products in Massachusetts then you should start exploring other options because the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources just released regulations banning most types of CBD products. From their policy statement:

“The following products are NOT approved for sale:

  • Any food product containing CBD;
  • Any product containing CBD derived from hemp that makes therapeutic/medicinal claims;
  • Any product that contains hemp as dietary supplement;
  • Animal feed that contains any hemp products;
  • Unprocessed or raw plat material, including the flower that is meant for end use by a consumer.”

Couple this with the fact that people can sell consumables with THC and you shouldn’t be surprised to find out that farmers, retail businesses, and consumers are not happy with this decision. From WCVB5 “‘An absurd dichotomy exists in the state today where you can legally produce and sell cannabis consumables, but you cannot legally produce and sell hemp consumables,’ Jim Borghesani, who served as spokesman of the 2016 ballot initiative that legalized marijuana, said.”

Why CBD Bans Continue in Some States

Honestly, I have no clue why this sort of thing happens. Since CBD is not psychoactive, why lower the regulatory boom? One possible reason would be that there are efforts being made by other industries, potentially cannabis, to tap the brakes on the CBD market.

More likely, my guess is that no governmental organization, whether it is the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources or the FDA, wants to take the lead on this. Imagine this: The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources approves CBD consumables and four days after that some kid chokes and dies on a lollipop laced with CBD. Of course the CBD didn’t have anything to do with the untimely death of this fictional child but there will be other people who will automatically point their fingers and cry hysterically about how CBD took this child from us.

Regulators would lose their jobs, they would miss out on any private sector sinecures that they had coming to them, and for what? It’s not like if a regulator drafts regulations that allow for the sale of products that can help people that regulator will reap any rewards from that decision. In other words, there’s not much of an upside for regulators to approve the sale of something new (and controversial) but there certainly is a downside.

What can the CBD industry do about this? Education is the boring yet most likely to succeed option. Keep on educating the public about how CBD, at the very least, doesn’t have any serious side effects and it looks like it does have at least some positive effects on people.

(And by education, we of course mean political leverage. The more people who are for CBD and are willing to base part of their voting decisions on where politicians stand on this issue can have a dramatic impact on CBD policy.)

Another Reason Why CBD Laws Must Be Clarified

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Over in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, there is a bit of a kerfuffle going on after the police department decided to “educate” the citizens of its town on the finer points of the laws governing the sale and possession of CBD oils. Spoiler alert: They failed.

Normally, I wouldn’t recommend reading the comments section but this is one of those times where I think it has some value.

It is my understanding that the Wisconsin Attorney General may be providing an opinion related to CBD Oil as it related…

Posted by Fort Atkinson Police Department on Monday, June 3, 2019

What is needed are some clear rules governing all aspects of CBD use. The FDA is working on it and my best guess is that it is going to take them some time before they enact any regulations; I’m hoping that by the end of the year the FDA will release its regulations. It’s going to be better for everyone involved if the laws and regulations are clarified.

California Quickly Moving To Legalize Hemp-based CBD Products

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You may not have thought that California would have had much of a problem with CBD products derived from hemp but the state has been cracking down on these products. Fortunately, with the 2018 Farm Bill and a couple of laws that are quickly passing through the state legislature this inanity should be quickly resolved.

Economics is playing a large part in the rapid acceptance of CBD products. CBD can be derived from hemp and most of the products containing CBD come from that crop. Hemp is a crop that requires much less water than some other crops, such as alfalfa, which requires as much as three times as much water to grow as hemp does.

Combine all of that with the projections for the CBD market, which may see a 40-fold increase in total market value in only a couple of years, and you can see why laws are quickly being passed to make these products legal. Expect to see more of this kind of legislative action all over the country as long as there are no high profile scares associated with CBD use.

Small Update on FDA Regulating CBD

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Last week the FDA held hearings to get differing opinions on how it should regulate CBD products. They heard from a diverse group of stakeholders in this industry but there is still a long way to go before the FDA makes a decision.

From USA Today: ” ‘There is mass confusion in the marketplace,” said Peter Matz of the Food Marketing Institute, one of dozens of speakers who addressed the FDA panel.

“Other speakers including academic researchers, businesses and consumer advocates urged the FDA to move quickly, noting that the industry is growing rapidly with little oversight. That is raising concerns about the accuracy of product labels and people not realizing how much they may be consuming through various products.

“Before the hearing began, acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless noted critical questions remain about the safety of CBD, such as how much is safe to use daily and the compound’s effects on pregnant women and children.”

One way to look at this is to view the FDA as being behind the 8 ball. They need to act quickly but they won’t have a full picture of the industry, how to regulate it, and what should they actually be regulating. Why? For one, there is a lack of research on the efficacy of CBD.

How much CBD can one safely take in a day? How much CBD does someone need to take before they start seeing results? What kinds of contaminants should people be worried about? (Hemp is used to soak up contaminants, which doesn’t make it a good thing to consume unless it is tested.)

What should be done about CBD Regulations?

A simple solution would be to treat CBD products like vitamins or dietary supplements. As long as CBD companies do not make claims about how their products treat specific illnesses then their products would be treated as food products. If there is a specific claim, like in the treatment of certain kinds of seizures, then the product should be treated like a drug.

From a more general perspective, declaring specific regulations on CBD products will help the industry immensely because, right now, no one knows what to expect. Yes, there are companies already out there selling CBD products and there are traditional retailers putting CBD products on their shelves but this industry can be so much more if only the rules were clear.