Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a marijuana compound linked to a range of potential health benefits but does not get you high. The roughly $1 billion CBD industry is slated to shift into high gear if the federal government approves the first CBD-based drug, an epilepsy medication called Epidiolex. : Futurology

The roughly $1 billion CBD industry is slated to shift into high gear completely disappear if the federal government approves the first CBD-based drug, an epilepsy medication called Epidiolex.

The FDA claims that CBD has no history of human use, despite the millennia of recorded human use of CBD-containing hemp and marijuana, in order to stop it from being sold as a supplement after they awarded a patent to GW pharma on its use as a medicine.

Once a chemical is approved as a medicine, it cannot be sold as an herbal or dietary supplement. Naturally derived chemicals that have an existing history of human use are supposed to be grandfathered in and allowed for use in supplements, even if a pharmaceutical company makes a medicine with the same chemical. This is why you have l-dopa from plant sources in herbal supplements, and l-dopa sold with a prescription for parkinsons from pharmaceutical companies.

Since CBD has a long history of human use, it should still be allowed as a supplement, but the FDA is claiming that there is no history of human use, and that since GW Pharma is testing it for use as a medicine, CBD is an unlicensed medicine and any supplements with it are contaminated and unfit for sale.

This is, of course, nonsense, meant to take a widely used, natural chemical, and give a monopoly of it to a single pharma giant.

Combined with the current bill to give the power to instantly outlaw any herbal or dietary supplement to the attorney general, and I’d say the feds are trying a last ditch effort to save their failed drug war by banning everything they can in order to max profits for the DEA and big pharma. Kava and kratom are in their sights, along with 5-htp and l-dopa.

Fuck this bullshit. Fight now, or every herbal and dietary supplement will be illegal. This bill passed the house and is in front of the Senate right now. The current system allows for supplements to be banned, but only if they fail a comprehensive, doctor evaluated, 8 point safety test. Kratom, kava, and CBD all pass this FDA designed safety test. There is no need to give the decision about what is an illegal drug to a single person, much less the same person who prosecutes the drug laws.