Hemp and CBD would get new attention by federal agencies under a 2021 budget plan.
The budget proposal asks for an additional $5 million next fiscal year for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate cannabis and its derivatives, including CBD.
The bugdet also asked for more money to oversee hemp farmers.
The budget requests come shortly after legislation was introduced in the U.S. Congress to require federal food and agriculture regulators to treat hemp-derived CBD as a dietary supplement.
That proposal came in response to the increasing popularity of the product and the FDA’s year-long delay in developing regulations.
The FDA last May started reviewing federal regulations for hemp-derived CBD after the 2018 Farm Bill federally legalized hemp and its derivatives. The review has yet to go public.
The $5 million boost in the proposed budget would help advance the FDA’s regulations for products containing CBD while allowing the agency to enforce the law against making unsubstantiated medical claims about their products, the FDA said in a statement.
“FDA is seeing a significant increase in activity relating to the marketing of unlawful cannabis-derived products, especially those containing cannabidiol, since the Farm Bill passed,” the agency noted.
The $5 million would be divided across different FDA departments, including:
- The Office of Regulatory Affairs ($2 million).
- The Center for Veterinary Medicine ($500,000).
- The Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition ($2 million).
- FDA headquarters ($500,000).
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