Make no mistake, the attempt to seize control of the burgeoning CBD market under the guise of the EU Novel Foods Regulation is a hijack by bureaucrats and big business.
This new market has exploded from zero to £300 million per annum in just the last few years. It now exceeds the combined market for vitamin C and D. It is a sensation, created by consumer demand for legal access to the medicinal benefits of cannabis and built by a group of small, entrepreneurial businesses, deeply passionate and engaged in delivering honest value-for-money.
The scammers have had a field day. The national press is full of unlawful advertising for CBD as a snake oil remedy and the regulators, the ASA, the MHRA and the FSA, have failed miserably, barely even made an effort to protect consumers. Despite this, the mainstream of the industry, which is ethical, responsible and committed to quality has been a model of self-regulation.
Now big business wants in. CBD is taking a huge share of a space occupied by giant pharmaceutical, healthcare and cosmetic multinationals. No surprise the regulators have had their arms twisted and they’ve devised this novel foods scam which would very effectively price all these small businesses out of the market.
There’s no justification for this intervention. The EU and the FSA have changed their position again and again and again over the last three years. First they weren’t interested. Then they suggested isolates might be novel, Then they suggested selective extracts might be novel. Now they wants all extracts to be novel, in direct contradiction to previous statements about hemp.
There is no health threat from CBD. In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) published ‘Cannabidiol (CBD) Pre-Review Report’ stating “CBD is safe and well tolerated in humans (and animals), and is not associated with any negative public health effects…does not induce physical dependence and is not associated with abuse potential.” The scaremongering from the FSA and the Committee on Toxicity has been cooked up in order to substantiate this unjustfied attack. The “potential adverse health effects” they refer to are based on dosages of 10 to 1000 times the recommended daily dose of CBD as a food supplement. The warning about pregnant or breast-feeding women is completely unjustifed when compared to any other food or drink they might consume.
Big Business is represented by a new, multi-millionaire funded trade body, the Association for the Cannabinoid Industry (ACI), which is demanding £50,000 membership fees while strongly supporting the novel foods scam and evidently working in close concert with the FSA. We have information that the Committee on Toxicity’s report was provided to the ACI in advance of any other trade body. The ACI and the very few large companies it represents, supported by the FSA, intend to seize control of the industry from those who created it.
In March, Cannabis Professionals will publish detailed guidance for CannaPro Certified businesses on how to respond to the novel foods threat. We have a solution which side steps the attack from the FSA, its allies in big business and the ACI. It has been devised in conjunction with counsel and is watertight.
Find out how to become a CannaPro Certified business here: https://cannapro-uk.org/2018/11/19/how-to-become-a-cannapro-certified-business/