Federal Agencies to Change View of Cannabis

According to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb federal action on marijuana policy is going to happen “soon,”. He is unclear about exactly what kind of action though. After Gottlieb dismissed the idea that botanical cannabis had therapeutic value. He said “probably going to be a policy reckoning around this at some point in the future.” “Obviously it’s happening at the state level, and I think there’s an inevitably that it’s going to happen at the federal level at some point soon,” Gottlieb’s comments may have been interpreted as a suggestion that legalization is happening at the state level and the end of federal cannabis prohibition is the inevitability. What is referred to as “Policy reckoning” could be some kind of increased enforcement of federal marijuana laws.

If it’s the former, it’s possible that the commissioner could be hinting at a bipartisan bill that would amend the Controlled Substances Act to exempt state-legal marijuana activity from its provisions—a piece of legislation that Gottlieb’s boss, President Donald Trump, said he “really” supports. He “unfortunately had nothing to say” in response to Marijuana Moment’s request for clarification. FDA spokesperson said, co-anchor Joe Kernen claimed that “every spirits and wine company sees a huge opportunity in cannabis” and asked if the country will be “OK” if marijuana becomes as common as alcohol. “Because it’s a different high, it’s a different feeling,” Kernen said. “You know, you can have two drinks—if you take two hits of the way pot is nowadays, it’s like terminal pricing. You get there right away.” Gottlieb said that recreational marijuana doesn’t “fall within our purview right now” and then talked about the agency’s role in policing medical claims that some companies have made about cannabis.

The FDA issued warning letters to several manufacturers of cannabidiol (CBD) products last year, claiming the businesses were “illegally selling products online that claim to prevent, diagnose, treat or cure cancer without evidence to support these outcomes. ”But look, we do regulate compounds that are making drug claims and we regulate botanical use of marijuana,” the commissioner said in the TV interview. “We have approved compounds derived from marijuana, but there is no demonstrated medical use of botanical marijuana. That’s the bottom line. “Of course, there have been numerous studies demonstrating that botanical cannabis has medical value, but this isn’t the first time that Gottlieb has drawn that distinction. Two months ago, appearing on the same news program, the commissioner said he worried about the impact of natural marijuana on the lungs and developing brains. At the same time, however, he signaled support for federal marijuana decriminalization. Nonetheless, in the process of Epidiolex being approving, the FDA also concluded that CBD doesn’t actually need to be federally scheduled at all. The ingredient has “negligible potential for abuse” and “currently accepted medical use in treatment,” the agency said.

Source: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/federal-marijuana-action-is-an-inevitability-trump-fda-chief-says/