Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved final administrative consent orders against six companies selling cannabidiol (CBD) products nationwide.
In December 2020, the Commission announced its first law enforcement crackdown on deceptive claims in the growing market for CBD products. The FTC took action against the six sellers for allegedly making a wide range of scientifically unsupported claims about their ability to treat serious health conditions, including cancer, heart disease, hypertension, Alzheimer’s disease, and others. In the sweep, the FTC filed complaints against: 1) Bionatrol Health, LLC; 2) Epichouse LLC (First Class Herbalist CBD); 3) CBD Meds, Inc.; 4) HempmeCBD; 5) Reef Industries, Inc.; and 6) Steves Distributing, LLC. A description of the FTC’s specific allegations against each company can be found in the press release announcing the crackdown. FTC
Hemp industry advocates urged a D.C. federal judge to not dismiss their suit seeking to block the DEA from regulating the crops, arguing their suit is distinct from a pending case they filed in an appellate court. The Hemp Industries Association (HIA) and S.C.-based CBD company RE Botanicals pushed back against the DEA’s argument that their suit seeks relief from an interim final rule holding cannabis byproducts in excess of 0.3% THC are controlled substances. The plaintiffs say the 2018 Fa`rm Bill is the focus of their challenge. In their complaint, the HIA and RE Botanicals said the DEA’s rule “threatens every stage of the hemp production supply chain” and claimed the agency was flouting the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp. Kelo Land
The potential exists for Native people to benefit economically in the hemp industry, according to Winona LaDuke, executive director of Honor the Earth, a national Native environmental organization. Though tribes have been reluctant to get into the hemp and cannabis industry, she writes, particularly under the Trump era, there’s a growing interest among Native people in a New Green Revolution. Last year, the Fort Berthold Reservation, Colorado River tribes, Iowa Tribe (Kansas and Nebraska), Yurok, Sisseton and Santee Dakotas, to name a few, got their hemp plans approved by the USDA, but more than that, tribal growers and thinkers are considering hemp as part of the future for Indian Country. If hemp’s potential is realized, she argues, they can transform the materials economy. Tribes are in a unique position amid relaxed laws around CBD and hemp production LaDuke writes. Tribal sovereignty provides their governments’ leeway in the development of cannabis policies and will be a stabilizing force in turbulent times. Today, confusing regulations and lucrative growth in the cannabis industry set a complex scene, but tribal nations are in a position to continue a course they set. Civil Eats
