Kenzi Riboulet-Zemouli (with the editorial assistance of Gaby Kozàr) published an analysis of the European Commission’s preliminary conclusions qualifying cannabidiol in food and foodstuff as a narcotic drug.

SUMMARY: Early July 2020, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety announced that it might adopt a position in which food products containing cannabidiol (CBD) derived from Cannabis sativa L. (hemp plant) would not be authorized for sale in the European Union, being assimilated to medicines under control (“narcotic drugs”). The information was circulated to applicants for the registration of a CBD-containing product within the EU Novel Food regulations, but not all of them: only the applicants whose CBD was plant-derived received the advice. Applicants for CBD obtained by full chemical in vitro synthesis were not notified. The analysis over which the Commission bases its preliminary conclusions is well-intentioned, and acknowledges key elements such as the non-inclusion of CBD among the Schedules listing “narcotic drugs” within the international drug control Conventions (IDCC). The analysis is, however, incomplete, leading to misinterpretations of the letter and spirit of the IDCC. This note analyses the interpretation of the IDCC by the Commission, from a technical perspective.

Read the whole analysis at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343768923_CBD_as_a_’narcotic’_Food_for_thought

A German version of the document is available here.

Republish