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Research Outline

Prepared for Hirad H. | Delivered August 14, 2019

Legal status of cannabis and CBD in US states and Europe

Goals

To find the legal status of cannabis products and specifically CBD, by state and European country.

Early Findings

  • CBD from hemp is technically legal in all 50 states, thanks to the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. HempPureCBD has an easy-to-read map regarding each states' "friendliness" towards industrial hemp-derived products like CBD. Idaho, Nebraska and South Dakota have attempted to circumvent federal law and have explicitly banned all CBD.
  • Marijuana-derived CBD is governed under different legal terms. It is not legally federally. Here are the states where it is legal due to the allowance of recreational marijuana: Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
  •  Medically-prescribed CBD from cannabis is also legal in states allowing medical marijuana: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia. Furthermore, these states also allow cannabis-derived CBD under prescription, but with pretty strict conditions (usually has to contain 0.3% or less THC): Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
  • The EU's official position on CBD is that food products are allowed if 0.2% THC or less (effectively limiting to only hemp-derived CBD) and cosmetics containing CBD are allowed if the fruiting tops of the plant were not used.
  •  Hempika has a map including all countries of the world and whether cannabis and hemp-derived CBD are legal or not. Countries where cannabis-derived CBD is officially not illegal are: Ireland, UK, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Spain, Belgium and Portugal. Generally, CBD containing less than 0.2% is decriminalized, so while not explicitly legal, it is also not illegal. However, like stated above, the upper THC limit of 0.2% basically restricts CBD to hemp-derived only.
  • However, Italian courts recently ruled that cannabis-derived CBD was illegal.