Can a country start legalizing cannabis and at the same time consider banning CBD? It would seem so.
The Czech authorities responsible for food safety have thus announced via a press release their intention to ban the marketing of products containing CBD and other cannabinoids derived from hemp, citing European regulations and the lack of research on the effects of these substances. health compounds.
The Czech Ministry of Agriculture has stated that the State Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (SZPI) is preparing a measure to remove from the market all foods and food supplements containing cannabinoids, which are sold in the form of oils, tinctures, capsules, gummies and other edible products. The ban will also affect cosmetic products containing hemp-derived cannabinoids.
The ministry did not specify the effective date of the ban.
Security issues
The ministry said it followed a strict interpretation of EU rules that make such products illegal. European regulations in some cases designate CBD as a novel food (Novel Food) which must be subject to safety checks by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
“I cannot accept food being put on the market that the European Food Safety Authority cannot ensure the safety of,” said Agriculture Minister Zdeněk Nekula, who admitted that the ban “ will have an impact on some operators in the food sector. »
The European Commission ruled in December 2020 that CBD is not a narcotic and can be classified as a food if it meets the relevant provisions of EU food law. European legal bodies have also ruled that CBD products should benefit from the same free movement of goods between and among member states as other legal products.
In parallel, EFSA has started to review various forms of CBD to approve them for EU markets under novel food rules. However, as this review progressed, the EFSA also found that it was difficult to rule on the safety of the products and had to limit itself to isolated CBD.
“EFSA has identified several potential risks and has stated that many missing data regarding potential health effects need to be completed before progress can be made in assessing the safety of CBD and hemp extracts,” the statement said. Czech Ministry of Agriculture. “She said that due to lack of data, it is not possible to confirm the safety of CBD”, yet declared safe by the WHO in 2017.
A misinterpretation
The announcement did not fail to react Lukas Hurt, editor of the Czech specialist magazine Konopi, who highlights several inaccuracies in the declaration of the Ministry of Agriculture.
“There are several reasons why this is an unnecessary measure and, what is more, not applied by the Czech authorities. Although the Ministry of Agriculture refers in its press release to the EU regulation on “novel foods”, this is not a legally binding regulation of the EU, but only a recommendation. Each Member State can therefore judge for itself what is or is not a novel food,” he recalled, a position which also applies to France, which does not apply Novel Food.
“As regards novel foods, we have, together with the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA), evidence confirming that CBD and other cannabinoids should not be labeled as novel foods. If something is to be labeled as a novel food, it can only be highly concentrated isolates, most often in powder or crystal form. But no plant extracts produced by traditional methods,” said Hana Gabrielová, president of CzecHemp, a Czech group of hemp growers.
“The use of industrial hemp plants and extracts for industrial, food and cosmetic purposes is enshrined in Czech legislation. Further studies are needed to determine the safety of concentrated cannabinoid isolates, but the World Health Organization (WHO) considers CBD extracts from industrial hemp, for example, to be safe,” continued Lukas Hurt.
“EIHA has a long-standing collaboration with CzecHemp and will promptly share with the Czech authorities all relevant documentation, analyzes and primary sources that clearly confirm that plant cannabinoids have been part of our ancestral diet for many centuries,” Lorenza said. Romanese, executive director of the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA).
The unexpected decision by the SZPI also came as a surprise to Jindrich Voboril, National Drug Enforcement Coordinator, who is also involved in the legalization of cannabis in the Czech Republic and certainly does not want to go down the road of further bans.
“We are currently preparing a proposal to create a completely new category of psychomodulating substances, which would also cover hemp CBD and products containing up to 1% THC. I was not informed in advance of this activity by the Ministry of Agriculture. I was a bit surprised and it’s not good,” said Jindřich Vobořil.
