NEW YORK – City Council members in Manhattan are now joining in the calls to question why regulators have strengthened their holds on the cannabis CBD products so many have come to depend on.
Many readers will be familiar with the fact that the City of New York banned CBD oils in food and drink products, at the same time as Ohio and Maine, earlier this year.
The New York Post reported Monday that council members in the New York City council wrote a letter to their city’s health commissioner this week because of the city’s ban. Health commission officials questioned the safety of CBD in foods and drinks.
According to the Post:
“We are deeply alarmed by the opaque nature of the process by which the Department came to this seemingly abrupt policy shift,” [Council speaker Corey] Johnson and Councilmen Mark Levine and Robert Holden wrote in their letter to Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot.
City council members further are requesting a detailed rundown of the commissioner’s thought process and decision-making, so it can fully understand how the ban was implemented.
The Health Commissioner’s office said it was responding to federal guidelines regarding CBD when it instituted the ban, but even that stands on shaky ground. Congressional lawmakers, for instance, recently rendered a letter to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. [2]
That letter was signed by Minnesota’s own Rep. Betty McCollum, but also by 2020 Presidential Candidate Tulsi Gabbard and Representative Chellie Pingree, who’s native state of Maine was part of the initial ban on CBD earlier this year. [4]
Gottlieb has issued more recent statements that it was an overreach when some of his employees made harsh calls for retailers to immediately draw CBD products from shelves or else face legal actions. [2]
Still, the New York Post reported that the New York ban on CBD has resulted in fines for businesses, many of whom are scrambling to make up for lost sales and product that now stands gathering dust while not on shelves. [3]
Luckily, as more and more scrutiny has entered the industry in the wake of CBD’s recent legalization, it has been accompanied by renewed business interest at nearly all levels.
Celebrities are jumping on the CBD trend, which has been building for years now, pushing it almost fully into the mainstream seemingly undeterred by regulators in New York and at the federal level.
To match, elected officials at the congress level and at New York’s city council have also shown that they are ready to stand up for consumers and business people in their districts.
While the fight is far from over until the CBD has a clear and understandable set of rules to follow at the federal level, the news shows how vocal and brave the CBD community is willing to be.
Sources
[1] https://nypost.com/2019/03/04/lawmakers-demand-to-know-why-cbd-was-banned-in-nyc/
[2] https://www.nothingbuthemp.net/blog/new-signs-from-fda-head-show-hope-for-cbd-industry-nationwide
[3] https://nypost.com/2019/02/05/health-department-banning-cbd-from-all-nyc-restaurants/
[4] https://www.nothingbuthemp.net/blog/u-s-congress-members-add-pressure-to-protect-cbd
