CBD is non-intoxicating and can be found in a variety of consumer products, like drinks, cosmetics, and foods, to name a few. CBD products are even found on the shelf in states where medical or recreational marijuana is not legal, including major retail chains such as Walgreens, Rite Aid, and CVS.
Only one CBD product has survived the FDA approval process — Epidiolex, a prescription drug to treat rare forms of childhood epilepsy. And over the summer, the FDA warned the public it was looking into the rise in the number of CBD products coming into the market.
So this week, the FDA updated its summer warning, especially now that CBD is being increasingly used for the control of pain and as a treatment for anxiety. The agency now says that until it learns more about the effectiveness and safety of CBD, it will not generally recognize the ingredient as safe or approve products that contain it, reports CNN News.
“We remain concerned that some people wrongly think that the myriad of CBD products on the market, many of which are illegal, have been evaluated by the FDA and determined to be safe, or that trying CBD ‘can’t hurt,'” Dr. Amy Abernethy, the FDA’s principal deputy commissioner, said in a statement. In reality, the FDA does not have enough data to say whether CBD can be “generally recognized as safe,” and several reports raise questions about the unintended health consequences of consuming the compound.
The FDA also sent warning letters to 15 companies illegally selling CBD products in interstate commerce that claimed to prevent, diagnose, mitigate, treat or cure serious diseases, such as cancer, or otherwise violated the FD&C Act.
Some of these products were in further violation because CBD was added to food, and some of the products were also marketed as dietary supplements despite products that contain CBD not meeting the definition of a dietary supplement. The companies sent warning letters are as follows:
Koi CBD LLC, of Norwalk, California
Pink Collections Inc., of Beverly Hills, California
Noli Oil, of Southlake, Texas
Natural Native LLC, of Norman, Oklahoma
Whole Leaf Organics LLC, of Sherman Oaks, California
Infinite Product Company LLLP, doing business as Infinite CBD, of Lakewood, Colorado
Apex Hemp Oil LLC, of Redmond, Oregon
Bella Rose Labs, of Brooklyn, New York
Sunflora Inc., of Tampa, Florida/Your CBD Store, of Bradenton, Florida
Healthy Hemp Strategies LLC, doing business as Curapure, of Concord, California
Private I Salon LLC, of Charlotte, North Carolina
Organix Industries Inc., doing business as Plant Organix, of San Bernardino, California
Red Pill Medical Inc., of Phoenix, Arizona
Sabai Ventures Ltd., of Los Angeles, California
Daddy Burt LLC, doing business as Daddy Burt Hemp Co., of Lexington, Kentucky
Actually, the FDA has never evaluated the effectiveness of CBD products, the amount in a “proper” dosage, potential side effects of consuming the products and the manufacturing process.
