Two bills have been introduced to protect consumer access to cannabidiol (CBD). They need our support. Action Alert!
We have a growing opioid painkiller epidemic in this country—one that has followed the scandal of so many heart-health-destroying or cancer-causing pain relievers being approved by the FDA. There is a natural alternative, and of course the government is intent on banning it for no reason at all—other than to clear the way for a blockbuster new drug.
Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) has introduced two bills, the Legitimate Use of Medical Marijuana Act (HR 714) and the Compassionate Access Act (HR 715), both aimed at removing federal obstacles that prevent patient access to CBD, a medicinal extract of the marijuana plant.
These bills follow a recent move by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) that classified marijuana and all its extracts as Schedule I controlled substances—a category that includes heroin, LSD, mescaline, and MDMA. Note that none of the CBD extracts contains significant amounts of the psychoactive chemical in marijuana—only the non-psychoactive painkilling chemicals.
Although “CBD” or “cannibinoids” are not mentioned in the Controlled Substances Act (CSA)—the legislation that the DEA must follow in creating rules related to controlled substances—the agency nonetheless lumps CBD and all other constituents of the plant into the definition of “marijuana.”
The Compassionate Access Act instructs the Department of Health and Human Services to recommend that the DEA reschedule marijuana. The bill also amends the CSA’s definition of marijuana to explicitly exclude CBD, and prevents federal officials from interfering with states that have allowed CBD for medical use.
The Legitimate Use of Medical Marijuana Act does many of the same things but specifically reschedules marijuana to Schedule II.
As we reported previously, Schedule I substances are not recognized as having ANY medicinal benefit. Yet there are thousands of published scientific studies on CBD and its beneficial health effects on pain, inflammation, seizures, rheumatoid arthritis, and other inflammatory conditions. Adding to the hypocrisy, the US government holds a patent on CBD that covers the use of CBD to protect the brain from degeneration—specifically, the patent says that “cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants,” limiting neurological damage following ischemic attacks such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and HIV dementia.
Why is this happening? The DEA claims that its recent action was merely a housekeeping matter—it assigned marijuana extracts a code for the purpose of tracking scientific studies of those compounds separately from marijuana. In the DEA’s view, CBD was always a Schedule I substance, and nothing has changed.
But there have already been consequences. A hemp beer was reportedly approved by the feds, but the decision was reversed when CBD was assigned a DEA drug code. Family businesses that have marketed natural products made from CBD oil for years must contemplate shuttering their operations, lest they be confused by the government for heroin or LSD dealers.
The feds are likely clearing the market of natural CBD in preparation for a CBD drug currently in Phase III trials. If so, those who rely on CBD to control pain or seizures will likely see the price of CBD skyrocket if the drug gets FDA approval.
We’ve seen this happen before. The FDA attacked brain health supplements like vinpocetine as a major Alzheimer’s drug from Eli Lilly was in Phase III trials—only to fail spectacularly, as have other Alzheimer’s drugs in recent months. A similar playbook was used against the amino acid tryptophan before the first SSRI antidepressant drug came on the market. We cannot let it happen to CBD.
Action Alert! Write to your representative and urge him or her to support HR 714 and HR 715, and ensure consumer access to CBD! Please send your message immediately.
Other articles in this week’s Pulse of Natural Health:
Lawmakers Miss the Mark on Vaccines
The Fight for Kombucha Continues
Report on Health Risks of Cell Phones Released by Judge
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I was extremely disappointed that writers for this newsletter were pro-Trump before the election. I strongly support CBD but to see you now upset with policies that should have been easily predictable. I wish all humans were empowered to understand the natural consequences of their actions including ANH-USA
Trump got elected by people who were “pro America”. This is something that neither party has been for well over fifty years.
Trump got elected by those who felt mistreated by multiple administrations and chose revenge against what were presented as insiders.
America declined because of sharp declines in both science and education funding and in a sharp reduction in the proportion of profits that were returned to blue-collar workers.
Sadly, those who funded the candidates who began that during the Reagan administration and continued it throughout the duh-bya administration also funded the Bannon administration.
Watch the effect of what he does, not what he pretends at rallies. This IS a test of attention.
So far, Trump appears to be a man of his word. I was a little leery about him at first, but am currently watching his address to the nation and it is reinforcing my confidence in him.
To my way of thinking, Jimmy Carter was the last president that even attempted to serve our country. He and our country were assassinated by our bankers and media, from which it never recovered.
As a former union rubberworker and steelworker, I sincerely doubt that our country will anytime soon be able to restore the American dream. All we can do is hope.
Suppose that I promise to make the sun rise in the west and a minority in the right states vote for me. Have I not won the presidency?
Suppose that I sign an executive order that the sun rise in the west. Does that not keep my promise?
Suppose that legislators from just my party vote for the sun rising in the west to avoid embarrassing me. The legislature of Oklahoma voted to define the constant pi as 3.2 to make calculation easier. Did they not keep their promises?
The next morning has not yet come.
Does it help to castigate bankers when Mr. Trump puts them in every possible cabinet position? Does it help the steel industry when Mr. Trump approves two pipelines which had already purchased all of their pipe and in a grade that is not even manufactured in the U.S.?
You can hope until morning comes.
Trump is a professional con man who knows how to tell people what they want to hear. He himself admits that everything he says is just a negotiating ploy, not a commitment.
Thus far, Trump appears to be attempting to keep all of his campaign promises. That alone is more than I have seen from either party for decades. Watching his address to the nation tonight is only reinforcing my confidence to him. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1a365e9967955aa64599eb92d258165777963f08668b755819e22eece319d8b8.jpg
I suppose if Trump were really in charge of anything, there might be some benefit to him. He is, like most Presidents for the past 30 years, a front man. An empty suit. He isn’t keeping his promises. He’s issuing executive orders that he most certainly didn’t even write, that are little more than announcements. They have no teeth, and congress are the ones that make the laws anyway. If you haven’t noticed, the same crooks and liars that were there before Trump (along with a few new ones) are STILL there. Trump has demonstrated his complete ignorance of how the world works, let alone the United States and it’s government. His administration claims to support state rights, but then tells the DEA to crack down on states that have legalized cannabis. He wants to cut funding for education, the arts, environmental protection, and veterans benefits, while increasing the military budget that is already greater than the next 12 nations combined (which includes nations like China, Great Britain, Russia, and others). He’s interested in making himself even more wealthy off of his time as President at the expense of all of us. This was obvious from the beginning, but some people choose fantasies of change over reality (which was what Obama voters did, and those who supported Hillary Clinton).
“Pro” vs con. This binary clutter of the mind results in unhealthy living. What does a healthy community look like? CBD is healthy. Dialectic conversations based on fact, reasoning, and listening are healthy. POLICY matters. Yet the unhealthy and likely unconscious dramas of the day make life suck for us now as well as hurt future generations. Values Matter. Care for planet, care for people and share the surplus. These values naturally create healthy communities. Ego based, drama-addicted, fear of the other is likely to lead to more climate change, more depression and anxiety and more inequity. What create health? Open mind, open heart and open will.
My state of Colorado voted to decriminalize both medical and recreational cannabis. That includes every component of the plant. That includes extracts, whether by water, ethanol or any other solvent. If a variety of cannabis sativa, whether by breeding or by genetic modification, produces a higher or lower proportion of any of the hundred or so compounds that are present in natural cannabis, the result is still just cannabis. An extract that happens to be high in CBD and low in cannabinol is still a legal extract and not a pharmaceutical or a dietary supplement. There has been no attempt to attack extracts that are high in cannabinol even though marinol is a licensed pharmaceutical.
Contrast “red yeast” which was a traditional herbal but was marketed as a dietary supplement after the natural statin which it contained had already been approved as a drug. The FDA decided that the natural product infringed on the synthetic one and prohibited that the supplement contain a medically effective dose of the statin. That is the difference between a law made by and for the people and a law made by and for plutocrats.
President Bannon’s Attorney General recently backed down on enforcing the DEA scheduling of cannabis. Those who want to protect CBD or any other component of cannabis should legalize it at the state level. Waiting for Federal legalization leaves a loophole for Pharma to patent and demand that FDA ban individual components.
While CBD should not be on schedule 1, it is not without risks. CBD is the chemical in cannabis that makes you feel “mellow” and not want to get off the couch. Like all depressants, it slows reaction time and can increase the risk of crashes. Don’t drive after taking it.
I wish. It hasn’t had any effect at all on me. None whatsoever. Maybe what you say is the case for others, but based on my experience, you’re barking up the wrong tree.
No mellow. No slowing of reaction time. I stand all day. Couch time? Hardly. If I shouldn’t drive after taking it, I suppose I shouldn’t drive after taking coconut oil either, because the effect is the same.
And yes, it’s high quality product. And yes, I’ve given it a fair trial. I’m gonna give it some additional time to see if it will do what it’s advertised to do, but I sure wouldn’t bother getting any more if I don’t see some benefit soon.
Dangerous in any way? You sure couldn’t prove it by me. I think the DEA’s stance is 100% politically motivated and completely ridiculous. They’e just protecting their bureaucratic turf and their fat Federal jobs. It has nothing whatsoever to do with health or safety of the public.
My post is based on research by one of my colleagues, who has been taking advantage of Colorado’s legalization of cannabis to do research on the differing effects of THC and CBD instead of just lumping them together as past researchers have done. He has found tentative evidence that medical marijuana (formulated for CBD) presents greater dangers to drivers than recreational marijuana (formulated for THC).
In this case, I think DEA is just doing the bidding of politicians. Some politicians don’t think we are smart enough to understand the complexities involved in the effects of drugs, so they paternistically simplify it for us, reducing it to “Marijuana drug. Drugs bad.” Marijuana might be bad, but not nearly as bad as opioids. I think decriminalization, at least, is probably a good idea with respect to cannabis.
Interesting. Thanks. Again, you’d never know it from my reaction or lack thereof.
I heard that the marijuana is much stronger today than in the past and also the one thing that truly worries me is the fact that it’s HEAVILY sprayed with pesticides!! Any comments on that would be appreciated!! Also, how is smoking something good for you? Just like cigarettes, are we to find many years down the line, that it’s actually causing cancer, too?? Just saying, there’s not enough research done on it to convince me to put it in my body. But I do think that it’s helpful for those with epilepsy to use without the ‘high’ component. But that’s as far as it goes for me.
It is a lot more potent today, because a lot of it has had it’s strains refined, and it’s being grown indoors. As for it being sprayed with pesticides, that statement alone tells me you know next to nothing about marijuana, nor how it is cultivated. Maybe some of the stuff grown in other countries have the possibility of being sprayed, but a very large majority of the marijuana sold in this country is grown here, and it is NOT sprayed with any pesticides at all, let alone the “heavily sprayed with pesticides”, a statement you make as if it was a fact.
You would doing yourself a great service with doing a lot more research about marijuana, before making anymore comments about it.
I get much better results for my pain relief from the edibles, than I do from smoking it, but I do at least get better pain relief from smoking it, than I do from the drug industries opiates.