The 2018 Farm Bill Nationally Legalized CBD???

Well… in short…. no. The 2018 Farm Bill was passed as well as signed by the president but it didn’t exactly legalize CBD.

Let’s start out with what a farm bill is. Every now and again congress creates legislation that covers how food, agriculture, research, forestry, energy, nutrition, food stamps and farming economies in general function.

This year’s farm bill got more attention than ever before, at least in my recollection, due to the farm bill’s provisions relating to hemp. When the 2018 Farm Bill passed, industrial hemp was removed as a Schedule I substance from the Controlled Substance Act. Schedule I is a category of drugs reserved for the most harmful of drugs– ones with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Descheduling industrial hemp represents a huge step forward for the hemp industry and forecasts some evolution in the government’s thoughts on this plant.

Because hemp is actually a cannabis sativa plant, the 2018 Farm Bill defines how to distinguish a hemp plant from a marijuana plant. This is done by testing the dried plant material and ensuring there is less than .3% THC.

Cool, so everyone can grow hemp now as long as it’s <.3% THC and bask in its glory!?! Well… not really. The United States Department of Agriculture, also known as the USDA, will oversea cultivation of industrial hemp. States may submit a regulatory plan to the USDA for approval if they wish to have their own rules for hemp production. Ultimately, growers will be required to be licensed either with the state (in cases where the state regulates hemp production), or with the USDA in states that do not wish to have their own hemp laws.

It will probably be about a year before all of these regulations are implemented. 

We hope you have found this article helpful. We do not intend to give legal advice nor make legal interpretations. Contact an attorney if you have questions about the details of this law.