UK government accepts ACI’s recommendations for first legal framework of CBD products

25 Oct 2023 --- The UK Home Office has positively responded to the Association for the Cannabinoid Industry’s (ACI) expert recommendations to create a legal framework for consumer products that contain cannabidol (CBD). The government had not responded to these prior.

“It is imperative for the nascent UK consumer cannabinoid sector that a legal framework is put in place to provide comfort for companies operating in the space and reassurance for consumers and retailers,” says Steve Moore, co-founder of the ACI.

“This will also help accelerate the regulatory process that businesses have invested in. It only adds to the importance of the explicit commitment to bring forward the necessary amendments to the Misuse of Drugs 2001 regulations.”

The ACI will comment further after meetings in the coming days with senior Home Office officials who have engaged with this issue in the past three months.

CBD clarification
In 2021, Kit Malthouse, the then minister of state for crime and policing, acknowledged the need for legal clarification. “There is currently no legal framework in place specifically exempting CBD products from control under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.” 

“With this in mind, the government wishes to explore the possibility of creating a specific exemption in the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 (‘the 2001 Regulations’) for CBD products which contain no more than a defined trace percentage of controlled cannabinoids,” says Malthouse.The UK government has accepted recommendations to create a legal framework for CBD products in the UK.

The government proposals came after ACI launched a “Save our CBD” campaign earlier this year urging the Home Office to update the law. The premise of the campaign insisted that without a legal framework the growing market for CBD products in the UK would be stifled. At the time, the campaigners said the uncertainty in the industry puts 400 CBD suppliers in jeopardy of closure.  

Furthermore, the ACI and the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis partnered with Chem ID to improve the authenticity and quality of commercial cannabis extract and medical cannabis markets in the UK and Europe.

Burgeoning CBD market 
This response came after the publication of a report by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs detailing its recommendations for changing the law in December 2021.

In the coming days, the ACI will work with the Home Office to address the ambiguities and areas of clarification in the ministerial response. 

Meanwhile, CBD is on track to be integrated into bread, cereal, ice cream and other common foodstuffs to create a whole new functional food and supplement market, following a green light from the UK’s Food Standards Agency. 

In addition, the US FDA received criticism for its lack of regulatory action on CBD. Organizations sent testimonies questioning how there can be a lack of CBD laws when dietary supplements became part of the FDA’s regulation three decades ago.

By Inga de Jong