As CBD has grown in popularity over the last decade, its use is becoming increasingly widespread across the nation.
As consumer habits have started to change, so have rules and regulations, causing CBD to face many barriers on the journey to becoming legal and accepted and posing both statutory and federal legislative challenges.
Once considered a Schedule 1 substance and now a number one choice medicinal, some Americans are wondering how we got here and what they need to know about CBD.
CBD or cannabidiol is a hemp-derived phytocannabinoid. Often praised for its natural, remedial, and therapeutic health benefits, cannabidiol is a choice option to alleviate various ailments and symptoms and is used for pain relief, inflammation, sleeplessness, anxiety, and stress. CBD is also known to assist with more severe illnesses and disorders such as cancer and epilepsy.
The CBD experience dates back to the 1940s, when CBD was first extracted in a lab, but people have been using cannabis for over 5,000 years.
More modern interest in CBD coincides with the start of the War on Drugs in 1971. In an attempt to gain control of the illegal drug trade, the United States government passed the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), a federal statute enacted by Congress and signed into being by President Richard Nixon.
The CSA aimed to address and prevent drug abuse and dependence, expand research into treatment options and rehabilitation, and enhance law enforcement deterrence and policy.
From this act came five schedules under which substances could be categorized at the discretion of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) upon consideration of a drug’s dependency, abuse, and medical potential.
At the time of its inception, Schedule 1 substances, the most intensely controlled, including lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), heroin, ecstasy, peyote, and marijuana, among others drugs.
Today, while many of the original substances remain on the list, changes have occurred as drugs are altered and invented, religious freedom comes into question, and the movement to deregulate and legalize certain drugs expands.
Currently, the most notably controversial drug is marijuana, which has begun to experience a shift in acceptance and legalization.
The CSA schedules marjauana under cannabis, which initially considered this category to include the cannabis plant, its products, and its derivatives such as marijuana, hemp, and cannabinoids.
Because all parts of the cannabis plant were classified at the same level, CBD was cited as a potentially addictive property and rendered an illegal substance.
It wasn’t until half a century later that the difference between hemp and marijuana was recognized, and the scheduling of CBD changed.
Though both hemp and marijuana plants are subspecies of cannabis, they contain different levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical compound responsible for the psychological effects of marijuana that get you high.
Marijuana plants possess much higher and more potent levels of THC, while hemp plants contain trace amounts and are instead abundant in cannabinoid compounds, making them the optimal choice for CBD production.
The understanding that these plants are related but not the same and the fact that CBD will not give you a high was recognized in The Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018, a federal statute more commonly referred to as the 2018 Farm Bill.
The Farm Bill acknowledged marijuana and hemp as separate entities, stating hemp to be a type of cannabis plant, extract, or derivative that contains THC concentrations within the federal legal threshold. These qualifications removed CBD from the controlled substances list, making it legal within specific parameters.
The 2018 Farm Bill generated a whole new facet of the agricultural industry, making hemp a desirable farming commodity and the CBD market even more lucrative. The bill also set expectations for CBD cultivation, harvesting, production, manufacturing, and distribution to comply with individual state regulations and requires agricultural hemp licensing to fall within statutory laws.
While most states reflect the rules outlined in The Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 and refer to it for guidance when setting CBD laws, regulations, and requirements regarding and involving CBD vary across state lines.
Most consistent is the requirement that CBD must remain within the confines of the 0.3 percent THC containment level so that consumers can distinguish between CBD and marijuana, especially when using CBD for medicinal purposes.
Other hemp industry directives, however, such as growing or possession limitations and product packaging requirements, are subject to the discretion of the state.
For example, in Colorado, where marijuana is legal, adults over the age of 21 are allowed to grow up to three flowering cannabis plants with a total of 12 plants per household.
In other states, however, state-specific legislation dictates who can grow hemp and process CBD, such as the Arkansas Industrial Hemp Act, which legalizes commercial cultivation of CBD throughout the state, but still considers backyard grows illegal.
And as some states adopt progressive legislation for cannabis production, like the New Jersey cannabis cultivation license 2021, others, such as the state of Wisconsin, retain strict CBD laws and only allowed CBD possession at the recommendation of a doctor until 2017, when the government reviewed a bill intended to relax CBD restrictions.
Rules and regulations will continue to shift throughout the U.S. as CBD becomes more widely accepted, and consumers will need to stay up to date on federal and statutory laws.