U.S. Hemp Roundtable General Counsel Jonathan Miller yesterday testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability regarding FDA inaction on CBD and regulating hemp consumables.
Hemp Roundtable says the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s failure to regulate after hemp was legalized in 2018 has resulted in an explosion of potentially dangerous illicit products, and also harmed farmers.
At the hearing, Mr. Miller said the FDA had gone back and forth on regulation.
“They initially said they are going to regulate and they have now claimed they need to have congressional authorisation to allow them to regulate that. We dispute that.”
On the issue of youth access to intoxicating hemp edibles, Mr. Miller said:
“We as an industry strongly oppose the sale of these products, the marketing of these products, to children and really we’re looking for the FDA’s help to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
When asked how long it would take the FDA to do something about the situation, Mr. Miller said there are already a number of safeguards under current law that the FDA could use – but it has chosen not to.
He then provided the example of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), which precludes manufacturers and distributors from selling mislabelled or adulterated products and requires the sale of products consistent with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).
The FD&C Act also requires reporting of serious adverse events and mandates strict labeling, which could be used to warn against the use of products by children. Mr. Miller says the FDA could also require child-proof packaging. This is important given the number of “poisonings” in recent years has skyrocketed.
It’s an unusual situation where an industry approaches Congress asking to be regulated. Whether the FDA steps up and does so remains to be seen.
This isn’t the first time Mr. Miller has testified before Congress about the FDA’s inaction. He testified before a subcommittee of this same committee, calling for urgent FDA action to regulate hemp extracts two years ago.
Last year, dozens of hemp trade and dietary supplement organisations signed a letter to the leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the FDA’s inaction on regulating hemp products, pushing for another hearing.
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