Speaking before a U.S. House of Representatives oversight committee yesterday (April 11), FDA Commissioner Robert Califf renewed the agency’s year-old request that Congress devise a way for CBD to be sold as a dietary supplement and possibly a food ingredient, an action the food and drug safety agency doesn’t think it can take under its current structure.
The commissioner said 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 the substance.
Califf’s testimony harkened back to a January 2023 statement by Janet Woodcock, then FDA’s principal deputy commissioner (she’s since retired). The title said everything: “FDA Concludes that Existing Regulatory Frameworks for Foods and Supplements are Not Appropriate for Cannabidiol, Will Work with Congress on a New Way Forward.”
Regulation of hemp derivatives including CBD has been an issue since its cultivation was made legal in the 2018 Farm Bill, which was largely authored by USDA and approved by Congress. Ever since, the product has been ubiquitous as a supplement and also has appeared in some food and beverage products, although the FDA has never ruled it safe as a food ingredient.
An even thornier issue is if marijuana’s intoxicating ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), should be legalized nationally and how it might be incorporated into food and beverage products. In some states that have legalized the drug, it is being used in food products, but those products cannot be transported over state lines.
One news outlet reported Califf stressed there’s no reason for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to delay its decision on rescheduling marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug, putting it in the same category as Tylenol and ketamine instead of heroin and LSD.
