California Bans Hemp Derived CBD?

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) released an FAQ just a few days ago addressing Industrial Hemp and CBD in food after receiving a number of communications from processors and retailers throughout the state.

The CDPH FAQ defines food as :
“(a) any article used or intended for use for food, drink, confection, condiment, or chewing gum by man or another animal.”

The CDPH goes on to indicate that it does not regulate products such as pet foods and products containing cannabis. It was explicitly noted that they would not only consider restricting any items with cannabis-related ingredients, they went further to specify that they strictly adhere to federal regulations when it came to food additives, dietary products, labeling requirements for foods and best practices for manufacturing. They also took a moment in their FAQs to recognize that the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 made all cannabis and cannabis-related products a Schedule 1 drug. While they admitted that California currently allows the manufacturing and sales of cannabis products, they use of industrial hemp as the source of CBD to be added to food products would be strictly prohibited in the state of California.

They further stated that until the FDA moves to recognizes that CBD oil or CBD products derived from industrial hemp are safe for human or pet consumption, CBD would not be an approved ingredient, additive or supplement in the state of California.

After years of CBD being available in your local smoke shop, chiropractor’s office or dispensary; California’s Department of Health – specifically the Food and Drug division has made some drastic changes to the holistic herbal market with these types of regulatory changes. If you live or work in California, there are a few things that are important to know about California hemp oil and food items:

1) As long as there are no claims of health benefits, hemp seeds and hemp seed oil will be allowed in the state of California.
2) No food products may contain CBD derived from industrial hemp.
3) Hemp seed oil obtained from industrial hemp containing CBD or any other cannabinoids are 100% banned.

Take a deep breath – while CBD is a molecule the state of California defines this molecule based on its derivation and not on its molecular makeup or structure. In layman terms- not all CBD oil is created equally in the state of California. If the CBD is isolated from marijuana that was grown in a licensed marijuana facility,  sold by a licensed retailer and taxed under the same marijuana taxation system – CBD can be purchased by California residents. However, the California Department of Public Health stresses that even retailers who are buying industrial hemp derived CBD from distributors in other states will violate the newly revised regulation.

If you’re a California resident and you’re concerned about these new regulations – please reach out to your local state, city, and county legislaters and let them know how this effects you and your livelyhood. Feel free to reach out to Kana if you need help contacting your regulators at support@kana.team. We would be more than happy to help you on your way.

Reference: CDPH revised document

The California Department of Public Health’s, Food and Drug Branch phone number is (916) 650-6500 and their email address is fdbinfo@cdph.ca.gov.