CBD — or cannabidiol, the cannabis compound that can relieve your pain without making you feel high — comes from the marijuana plant and will be regulated in accordance with the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act and the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, state officials say in a just-issued notice.
The clarification from the state’s marijuana regulatory body comes in response to confusion over the legality of CBD, which on its own does not contain the intoxicant THC.
Follow up communications with LARA legal panelists have left ambiguous how this will impact hemp based CBD products, as these appear to be directly controlled by MDARD and not by LARA. In response to questions asked to LARA an email was received containing the MMMA law, MMFLA law, and the controlled substance act.
Through Komorn Law additional ongoing communications have been made, and the LARA regulators have assured they will provide additional updates. Needless to say this grey zone has led to a significant amount of uncertainty as attorney Josh Colton from Komorn Law, PLLC has told us. “In the past week since we have received the updated LARA advisory bulletin, our law office has been contacted with hemp based retail locations, manufacturers, consulting firms, accounting firms, farmers, and others operating or looking to operate in the Michigan hemp industry, and the only answer that we can give them at this time is that the laws are ambiguous.” Colton went on to state that “the laws in Michigan indicate that the hemp act is controlled through the department of agriculture and not through LARA. LARA’s ability to promulgate rules under the MMFLA is specifically limited to Medical Marihuana, which is defined as excluding industrial hemp. The Industrial Hemp Act is regulated by the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development, which is a separate state actor. The best situation for both those in the Medical Marihuana and Industrial Hemp industries is for clarification that distinguishes between the two and doesn’t lump them together.”
