The legal landscape around CBD (cannabidiol) is unsettled and unclear, and it became even more confusing with today’s FDA approval of the CBD-based drug Epidiolex.
Epidiolex, a “pure plant-derived CBD” extract developed by the UK-based GW Pharmaceuticals, has been shown to drastically reduce seizures in large populations of children with epileptic syndromes. (For a clear explanation of what CBD is and how it affects the brain, see Leafly’s guide to cannabidiol by Dr. Dustin Sulak.)
'Anybody out there that says the law on CBD is definite one way or another is lying.' Jonathan Miller, Attorney, US Hemp Roundtable
“The FDA is the entity in America that approves medicines. Not DEA, we’re cops. We depend on them to tell us if something’s a medicine,” Barbara Carreno, the DEA press officer, told me earlier this month during an interview about the legal status of CBD. “If they on June 27 announce that they’re approving Epidiolex, absolutely we’ll go into a different schedule. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it.”
As it turns out, the FDA announced it was approving Epidiolex on June 25, two days earlier than Carreno predicted.