Update 12-21-2018:
Good news for direct sellers looking to jump on the CBD bandwagon: Congress has backed the $867B Farm Bill, which legalizes the production of hemp.
The House voted 386-47 in favor of the bill following an 87-13 thumbs up in the Senate the day before. The bill includes provisions that remove industrial hemp from the Controlled Substance Act. If President Trump signs the bill, which he is expected to do, the non-psychoactive version of cannabis will be considered an agricultural commodity and legal for farmers to grow in all 50 states.
Industrial hemp is a legal term for any version of cannabis that contains less than 0.3 percent THC, the active compound in pot that is responsible for getting you high. These plants can be made into a wide variety of things, from building materials and clothing to food and even the pen that Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell used to sign the Senate’s Farm Bill.
Industrial hemp was already legal to grow in the U.S. if the farmer applied to a local research program run by a state, university or Native American tribe. These programs were often difficult to apply to and carried strict rules; Washington’s program had less than 10 farmers growing hemp underneath it.
The CBD industry—CBD is a medicinal compound that can be grown in industrial hemp—is cheering the news, saying that it will significantly expand the market for the non-psychoactive pot compound. But while the bill makes growing CBD a lot easier, but there are still questions about how the FDA will regulate CBD, which it currently considers an illegal additive to foods and supplements.
