PRESS RELEASE
WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–In response to an alert from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “What You Need to Know (And What We’re Working to Find Out) About Products Containing Cannabis or Cannabis-derived Compounds, Including CBD,” and a news release, “FDA warns 15 companies for illegally selling various products containing cannabidiol as agency details safety concerns,” published online Nov. 25, the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), the leading trade association representing the dietary supplement and functional food industry, issued the following statement.
Statement by Steve Mister, president & CEO, CRN:
“Yesterday evening, FDA unnecessarily alarmed consumers with a headline-grabbing announcement on the potential health risks of CBD-containing products consumed by over 20 million Americans without any plan to address it. Meanwhile it abdicates its regulatory oversight for the subset of these products that do pose risks to consumers because they are poorly made, improperly labeled or illegally deliver THC. FDA’s inaction for the past year has facilitated an unregulated marketplace—which is bad for consumers and bad for business. It’s time for FDA to announce a legal pathway to market for these CBD-containing supplements and to commence meaningful enforcement against products that flout category-wide requirements for dietary supplements.
FDA’s announcement raises legitimate questions about the safety of CBD, questions that CRN and its members take very seriously. But the agency’s actions to date have not advanced that cause:
It is not too late for FDA to do the right thing: it should explicitly open the dietary supplement lane to CBD and be the ‘cop on the beat’ enforcing the whole range of dietary supplement laws and regulations against those products.
The FDA’s continued failure to take this action, while raising consumer alarm over the entire market, requires that Congress get involved to direct the regulator to open the supplement lane to CBD and to police these products with the ample enforcement tools at its disposal.
Responsible companies marketing CBD in dietary supplements already comply with the law— which means that they hold data justifying their own evaluations that their products are safe, that they follow good manufacturing practices, that they register their facilities, and that they have a serious adverse event reporting system in place. These responsible companies have been unfairly maligned by FDA’s overbroad warnings on safety, and ironically, are actually deterred from sharing the safety data they have with the agency.
In the absence of an effective regulator, consumers can turn to organizations such as the Council for Responsible Nutrition to help them distinguish responsible supplement companies from those who may or may not be. CRN is proud of its members—both pure play CBD manufacturers and legacy manufacturers of other supplements who have added CBD to their product lines—and holds them out to the public as companies who can be trusted to make consumer safety a top priority. CRN recommends that consumers interested in CBD talk with their doctor or other healthcare practitioner about the potential benefits and safety concerns. If CBD is a smart choice for their wellness needs, consumers should choose a responsible CBD company with which to partner on their health.”
Note to Editor: The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), founded in 1973, is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing 150+ dietary supplement and functional food manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, and companies providing services to those manufacturers and suppliers. In addition to complying with a host of federal and state regulations governing dietary supplements and food in the areas of manufacturing, marketing, quality control and safety, our manufacturer and supplier members also agree to adhere to additional voluntary guidelines as well as to CRN’s Code of Ethics. Visit www.crnusa.org. Follow us on Twitter @CRN_Supplements and LinkedIn.
Contact:
Holly Vogtman, 202-204-7665
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