Right after the DEA decided to classify cannabis extracts (in particular classifying CBD, hemp and all their derivatives as Schedule 1 substances), the Hemp Industries Association (HIA) stated Monday that it’s “strongly considering legal action” to stop the DEA’s move.
The HIA is saying that CBD products should be classified as “supplements,” not drugs or pharmaceuticals. They said the DEA abused its authority. Stating that Congress or the U.S. attorney general are the only ones authorized to add CBD oil to the list of banned substances.
The non-profit trade association who represents businesses, farmers, researchers and investors working with industrial hemp, stated in a press release that the DEA was not right in classifying all CBD products as “marijuana extracts” considering the oil can be made from both marijuana and hemp plants.
“Additionally, the ruling is based on an incorrect and incomplete understanding of how CBD is derived from the cannabis plant,” the HIA said in a statement. “While CBD may be derived from forms of cannabis that contain high amounts of THC, the cannabinoid associated with ‘marijuana,’ CBD may also be produced from industrial hemp plants that meet the legal standards of less than 0.3 percent THC by dry weight, and which may be cultivated in 32 states in the U.S. per Sec. 7606 of the Farm Bill. Hence, not all CBD products may be classified as extracts from ‘marijuana.’”
Executive director of HIA; Eric Steenstra, says that Congress already ruled on the subject when they allowed hemp farmers to produce CBD oil in a bunch of states under the 2014 farm bill.
Steenstra reiterated that the “DEA has no authority whatsoever to impede the production, processing or sale of hemp products, including CBD products, grown under the Farm Bill.”
In the meantime; a finding presented by researchers at the American Epilepsy Society’s 70th Annual Meeting in early December discovered that CBD oil reduces the amount and severity of seizures in children and adults with severe, intractable epilepsy.
“Our research adds to the evidence that CBD may reduce frequency of seizures, but we also found that it appears to decrease the severity of seizures, which is a new finding,” said Jerzy P. Szaflarski, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the department of neurology and director of the Birmingham Epilepsy Center at the University of Alabama, who was at the meeting.
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