Update On The EU Regulation Of CBD In Foods And Vaping

On 15 April we issued a client Advisory summarising the current regulatory environment in Europe and the US for foods and cosmetics containing cannabidiol (CBD).

The status of such products, however, remains uncertain in several important respects. This note therefore identifies areas where developments or clarification are currently anticipated and addresses the use of CBD in vaping products.

National and International Control Measures

Following consideration by the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD), on 24 January 2019 the Director General of WHO wrote to the Secretary General of the United Nations recommending that cannabis and cannabis-related substances be rescheduled in the international drug control framework. The reported reason for the recommendation is to facilitate the trade in such compounds for medical and scientific purposes.

The ECDD proposed that preparations considered to be "pure" CBD should not be scheduled within the International Drug Control Conventions by adding a footnote to the entry for "cannabis and cannabis resin" in Schedule I of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961) (the Single Convention) to read "Preparations containing predominantly cannabidiol and not more than 0,2 percent of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabidiol are not under international control".

One of the legal implications of this recommendation would be to leave nominally pure CBD preparations (with less than 0.2% tetrahydrocannbidinol (THC)) outside the strict control imposed by the Single Convention on all substances listed in its Schedule 1, such as cannabis, heroin, cocaine and opium. The UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna discussed the adoption of this recommendation on 24 June 2019. The background documentation may be accessed via its WHO page.

EU Decision on Foods Containing CBD

In January 2019, the European Commission updated the Novel Food Catalogue to state that extracts of Cannabis sativa L. and derived products containing cannabinoids are considered as novel foods, as a history of consumption has not been demonstrated. As a result, all extracts of hemp and derived products containing cannabinoids (including CBD) are now regarded by the European Commission as novel. This categorisation applies to the extracts themselves and also any products to which they are added as an ingredient (such as hemp seed oil). Synthetically obtained cannabinoids are also considered to be novel.

The Novel Food...