CBD, otherwise known as Cannabidiol, is a compound found in cannabis and hemp without psychoactive properties and it’s thought to have therapeutic benefits for everything from arthritis to seizures. While CBD can be isolated and derived from cannabis (or it’s not-as-fun brother hemp), the distinction is a fine line that allows for legal CBD products in many US states. However, CBD still isn’t entirely legal on a federal level.
CBD is already a $190 million business in the US, and if the latest farm bill passes, it could make hemp and hemp-derived products legal across all 50 US states on a federal level. By one estimate, the CBD market could reach $591 million in 2018, and grow to $22 billion by 2022 with the passage of the Farm Act.
Federal legalization of hemp would open the door for national retailers and drug stores like CVS and Target to start carrying products containing CBD (like supplements) since it would remove CBD’s DEA classification as a Schedule I drug, meaning that CBD has no medicinal quality and a high potential for abuse.
The latest farm bill would also allow farmers to grow hemp for all sorts of industrial uses, not just CBD production. Prior to the stigmatization and then prohibition of cannabis (a complicated path that includes fear-mongering of Mexicans, African-American jazz musicians, and industrial conspiracies), hemp was an important crop in America used for industrial applications like textiles. Hemp cultivation in the US was formally prohibited in 1970 by the Controlled Substances Act.
So, will the farm bill’s provision for decriminalizing hemp make toking up legal on the federal level? Nope. While hemp is low in THC (the stuff that makes you high), it will at least make therapeutic CBD more accessible and likely, will become an additive in everything from candy bars to sparkling water.
In other words, 2019 could very well become the year of CBD everything.
