The legal landscape of CBD

As mentioned previously, CBD exists in an odd legal space. The Agriculture Improvement Act, also known as the Farm Bill, legalized industrial hemp at the end of 2018, removing it from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)’s purview. However, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), still maintains that all CBD products are illegal to sell—even if they contain less than .3 percent THC—with the exception of Epidiolex. According to Nsikan Akpan and Jamie Leventhal from PBS, the FDA has the authority to go after any business marketing or selling products that make health claims regarding CBD, especially if interstate trade is involved. As of July 2019, the FDA has only sent warning letters to violators.

CBD’s status is a different story on state levels with abundant nuances. In Colorado, for instance, CBD is legal for both medical and recreational use for individuals over the age of 21 (which is consistent with the state’s views on marijuana). CBD is also fully legal in Oregon—but there are restrictions regarding how it can be advertised. Some states, like Louisiana, legalized CBD from hemp as recently as June 2019.

Others, however, are much harsher toward cannabidiol (especially those where marijuana is still entirely illegal), and many lie in-between. CBDCentral’s interactive map notes that a majority of states give CBD conditional legality, such as when it is exclusively for medical use (sometimes requiring patients to carry a card), for specific medical conditions (such as epilepsy), or even when CBD is sourced from marijuana instead of hemp.