Members of a congressional committee held a hearing on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday—with a hemp industry expert explaining how the market is “begging” for federal regulations around cannabis products and a staunch prohibitionist congressman invoking musician Elton John’s opposition to marijuana legalization.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee heard from a wide range of experts at the meeting, titled “Restoring Trust in FDA: Rooting Out Illicit Products.”
FDA “failed to approve products and take necessary enforcement actions resulting in a flood of illicit and counterfeit products entering the country,” a memo that the committee released last week says.
The meeting didn’t exclusively focus on cannabis issues. But among the five listed witnesses selected to testify was Jonathan Miller of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, an organization that has long criticized FDA’s inaction on CBD and other cannabinoid regulations since the crop was federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill.
“We as an industry are begging for that regulation,” Miller said in response to a question from Chairman James Comer (R-KY).
Asked about instances of youth accessing intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoid products, the witness stressed that “we as an industry strongly oppose the sale of these products, or the marketing of these products, to children and really are looking for the FDA help to make sure that that doesn’t happen.”
Comer inquired about FDA’s inaction to date, sarcastically asking if it’d require “a gazillion bureaucrats that work from home” to regulate cannabinoids such as CBD.
Miller said that existing statutes prohibit manufacturers and distributors to sell “mislabeled or adulterated products,” so taking enforcement action against those that violate the law is one way FDA could regulate hemp.
“The law also requires reporting of serious adverse events, and it mandates strict labeling—including, if FDA desires, warning against the use of products by children,” he said, adding that FDA “could require child proof packaging.”
“So there are existing laws out there that they can take advantage of,” he said.
Read more at Marijuana Moment