Westword
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Dear Stoner: I saw that the DEA made another rule against CBD. Should I be stocking up while I can?
Meadow
Dear Meadow: The shield of legal hemp still isn’t strong enough to completely protect CBD from the shadow cast by marijuana and THC. In a recent interim final rule issued by the DEA in response to hemp’s 2018 legalization, the DEA stated that any hemp product exceeding the federal limit of 0.3 percent THC during manufacturing is a Schedule I substance.
The federal government and Colorado are still hammering out hemp farming rules.
Jacqueline Collins
Why is this a big deal? When extracting CBD from hemp, THC and other cannabinoids are also extracted and concentrated. According to hemp extractors and other industry insiders, the 0.3 percent THC limit is almost always exceeded during the production process, with the THC removed and disposed of before lab testing. While the DEA requirements could pull the rug from under the CBD industry, they’re also not really enforceable unless the feds decide to raid and shut down CBD businesses on a mass scale.
Still, would I be pissed off and worried if I had millions of dollars invested in a CBD company? Yes. But given that the FDA has always considered CBD foods, oils and concentrates illegal for human consumption, I wouldn’t worry about shortages caused by overzealous enforcement just yet. In case you haven’t heard, there’s a massive over-supply of hemp and CBD right now.
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