U.S. Congress Committee to Discuss CBD Thursday

A U.S. congressional committee is scheduled to talk about hemp this week as lawmakers presumably will increase pressure on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to establish guidelines to regulate the CBD market.

A hearing set for 2 p.m. Thursday will look at “Hemp in the Modern World: The Yearslong Wait for FDA Action.”

The House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services session is open to the public and also may be viewed online, according to Hemp Today.

The session is also likely to address what some say is a lack of regulatory clarity and concern about the safety of synthetic delta-8 THC products.

The oversight committee, chaired by Rep. James Comer, is investigating the FDA’s failure to regulate hemp-derived CBD products as dietary supplements.

Lawmakers and the FDA have danced around CBD for nearly five years, with Congress repeatedly calling on the agency to set rules for the unregulated products, which emerged beginning late last decade and grew into a flourishing gray market.

“We are going to investigate why exactly the FDA has decided to ignore their regulation responsibilities related to CBD and other areas of jurisdiction,” said Rep. Lisa McClain, who serves on the committee.

“Without these regulations, dangerous products could make their way to the shelves while safe and credible CBD products could be prevented from entering the market,” McClain said.