Next week, a congressional committee will hold a hearing on the Food and Drug Administration. A hemp industry representative has been invited to give testimony on the “failure” of the FDA to approve CBD and other products.
The House Oversight Committee hearing—titled “Restoring Trust in FDA: Rooting Out Illicit Products”—is set to take place on Wednesday.
In a report on the hearing, the FDA is said to have “failed” to take enforcement measures and approve the products. This led to a flood illicit products.
Meeting will focus on cannabis-related issues, but not exclusively. Jonathan Miller from the U.S. Hemp Roundtable will be one of the witnesses. The organization, which has been critical of FDA inaction over CBD and other cannabinoids regulations ever since federal legalization under the Farm Bill 2018 was achieved, is listed as one the four selected witnesses.
Miller, who spoke to MEDCAN24 Friday morning, said that he anticipates the hearing will be “wide ranging,” and his testimony will focus on the “challenges the hemp sector has faced due to FDA’s failures to regulate their products.”
His testimony, he said, will be an “update”, on the issues that he raised during the hearing in 2023 before the subcommittee. At the time lawmakers expressed concerns over FDA’s unwillingness to set rules for marketing federally-legal hemp as food or as a dietary supplement.
In the two years since that initial meeting, the hemp market has faced repeated regulatory challenges—with a growing number of states moving to enact bans on certain hemp products due to the lack of regulations around intoxicating cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC that have become widely available.
Miller stated that “nothing at FDA has been done” to solve the problem. We think the bans are a result of our lack of regulation. We hope that if our products are regulated people will stop trying to ban them.
Miller intends to bring up a possible legislative solution at the hearing, a bill that was filed by Sen. Ron Wyden last year. The bipartisan measure would have created a federal regulation framework for cannabinoids derived from hemp.
This legislation empowers states to establish their own regulations for CBD products, while also giving FDA the authority to enforce certain standards of safety in the market.
Miller stated that he was “looking forward” sharing the updates with the members. He called it “a good bipartisan topic which will unify folks in the Oversight Committee about the necessity for reform.”
Due to FDA’s absence, all states, from California to Florida, have sought to make major reforms to their laws regarding hemp consumable products. The focus of attention has largely been directed at intoxicating hemp products. However, CBD companies that are federally approved have found themselves in greater danger.
Meanwhile, as lawmakers prepare to once again take up large-scale agriculture legislation this session, congressional researchers in January provided an overview of the policy landscape around hemp—emphasizing the divides around various cannabis-related proposals among legislators, stakeholders and advocates.
Senate Democrats released the long-awaited draft of 2024 Farm Bill last year that contained several proposed changes to federal hemp laws—including provisions to amend how the legal limit of THC is measured and reducing regulatory barriers for farmers who grow the crop for grain or fiber. Some stakeholders were concerned that this legislation would “eliminate” a range of current products.
Over the next few years, hemp’s market value will continue to plummet due to unique regulations. This is what stakeholders are blaming for its rapid decline. Despite the economic conditions, however, a recent report found that the hemp market in 2022 was larger than all state marijuana markets, and it roughly equaled sales for craft beer nationally.
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