The manufacturing and usage of Cannabidiol(CBD) creams, gels, and pills which are said to be a non-psychedelic, potentially curative compound in the cannabis plant, have been rapidly increasing in the past five years. But CBD is still under speculations, with the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) getting through scientific and public comments to clarify its regulatory strategy toward CBD products. Meanwhile, FDA has started issuing warnings over manufacturers’ grievous claims about CBD’s curative effects.
According to the latest development, the FDA warned a CBD manufacturer for making unproven medical claims about CBD’s health benefits. Besides he also claimed that the compound could treat Alzheimer’s disease and kill breast cancer cells which are again a questionable claim.
Dr. Ned Sharpless, the acting Commissioner of FDA said, “Selling unapproved products with unproven therapeutic claims- such claims that CBD products can treat serious diseases and conditions- this can put off patients from important medical care,”. He further added that there are speculations about the science, safety, and quality of the unapproved CBD products.
Not to be a dietary supplement
FDA has pumped brakes on the CBD products in 2019 for been approved of specific drug usage. Hence it cannot be used as a food supplement. Brian Prather, a registered pharmacist in Michigan selling CBD products, told that the isolated CBD extract from marijuana, which is a cannabis plant higher in concentrations of THC, does not meet the definition of dietary supplement according to the agency’s definitions. It could be subject to FDA action. But CBD extracted from hemp have extremely low-THC cannabis is not federally scheduled as a drug.
Hemp plants, the cannabis plants with 0.3% or lesser THC, are the plants that are no longer defined as marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act.
Emerita at Indiana University School of Medicine stated that companies involved in the CBD market are seeking FDA to place it in the category of food additives called ‘generally recognized as safe’. Although, he dissents as adequate research is yet to be performed and until then it should be confined to ‘prescription-only’ status for its safety and efficacy be established.
