Pennsylvania CBD growers want to get out of ‘gray area’ without federal regulations

Pennsylvania CBD producers remain in legal limbo as they wait on Congress to decide whether to create a new regulatory pathway sought by the Food and Drug Administration.

Meanwhile, CBD producers and experts warn that CBD consumers will suffer from an unregulated market.

“It’s about time that somebody in government, at the federal level, steps up to the plate and does their job and puts a regulatory framework in place,” said Jonathan John, a Pennsylvania-based chemist who sells CBD through his company, Circus Cannabis. “So that these businesses can continue to operate … rather than wasting time and money on lawyers and trying to determine what is legal.”

John acknowledged not much is known about the long-term effects of CBD use, but said the lack of regulations on CBD poses a much bigger risk to consumers.

“You could basically go and buy any product off the shelf and there’s no testing that is needed for it. Anybody could make it,” John said.

CBD, short for cannabidiol, is a hemp derivative that’s found in marijuana, but doesn’t create a “high.” It became nationally legal in 2018, when provisions were inserted in a major farm bill to legalize growing certain types of hemp.

The rapid development of the CBD industry, before it received much study or regulations, is unusual for a new substance, according to Brook Duer, a staff attorney at the Penn State Center for Agricultural and Shale Law.

Extracting and selling CBD from hemp quickly became an industry, and now CBD tinctures, gummies and even pet food are widely available.

Early studies indicate that CBD can improve symptoms of mental illnesses like anxiety, and a CBD-based anti-seizure drug called Epidiolex was approved by the FDA in 2018.

But the FDA argued that not enough is known about CBD’s risks, claiming that it can interact with other drugs, damage the liver and decrease male fertility.

In FDA’S statement in January, Deputy Commissioner Janet Woodcock said most CBD products don’t meet the standards for either a drug or a supplement.

But because CBD products are already so popular, the FDA asked Congress to create a “new regulatory pathway” for CBD.

So far, key members of Congress haven’t indicated whether they intend to create this pathway.

U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Howard, is expected to be a major player as the new chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, which could make CBD regulation a priority.

Thompson described the FDA as “missing in action” on CBD regulations last year, during a hearing of the House Agriculture Committee Subcommittee On Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research.

Bob Ricketts, who grows hemp and produces CBD for his Centre County-based company, Pink Mule Growers, said federal regulations on CBD would likely help his business.

Most regulations on CBD are at the state level, which makes it complicated to expand a CBD business across state lines, Ricketts said.

For now, CBD products rarely follow any regulations. Selling food or beverages that contain CBD is illegal, both at the federal level and in PA, Duer said, but CBD gummies are available at countless stores and gas stations across the state.

The FDA has sent warning letters to a few dozen companies since 2015, usually about the illegality of edible CBD products or making illegal health claims, but this doesn’t do much to dissuade the larger CBD market.

“This is the gray area that is so confusing — technically illegal, but you can buy it at every Sheetz,” said Ricketts.

“What I said to my local health inspector was, I’m happy to do whatever you ask of me. I just ask that you don’t say I can’t do something that someone else is doing,” Ricketts said. “It is available at Sheetz or Wegmans or the local smoke shop. That just isn’t right.”

The Degler News Service is a part of Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications.