For hours Friday, people waited to address the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about cannabis and cannabidiol, the new and largely unregulated compound that’s showing up in everything from cookies to dog treats. Lawyers, manufacturers, lab operators, advocates of those with debilitating diseases—they all had something to say.
The FDA called the public comment session as a precursor to potential regulation of hemp-derived cannabidiol, or CBD, an increasingly popular additive that is projected by New Frontier Data to reach nearly $1.3 billion in U.S. sales by 2022. As the hearing stretched into its ninth hour, a panel of FDA officials had already heard from 100 speakers, including those who want more labeling, testing and dosing requirements and others who want the agency to take a much lighter regulatory touch.
