Legal Facts

Legality issues are one of the most common concerns among consumers using CBD supplements across the nation. From traveling with CBD to vaping in public, people are worried about law enforcement interactions. Growing your knowledge about the legality of hemp and CBD is the best way to put those concerns to rest.

CBD, when derived from Marijuana, is only legal in states with medical or recreational marijuana programs, while CBD derived from industrial hemp is legal in all 50 states. Signed in 2014, section 7606 of the Farm Bill defines industrial hemp as “the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of such plant, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.” Meaning, industrial hemp is any part of the cannabis family as long as the plant contains less than 0.3% THC and because industrial hemp is legal in the US, CBD products extracted from these plants are legal in all 50 states. That means that when traveling, whether by car or air, you can bring your CBD supplements with you.

Though growing hemp was federally banned prior to 2014, court cases have clarified that hemp is not a scheduled substance. In February 2004, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a unanimous decision ruling that hemp and any of its naturally-occurring derivatives is not a schedule 1 drug. Furthermore, the DEA’s most recent Controlled Substances list, published in September of 2018, does not list hemp or CBD.

There are even a growing number of hemp farmers across the US. As a result of the Farm Bill, every state has the right to set up industrial hemp growing pilot programs. With over 35 states taking advantage of this, hemp is continuing to explode from Kentucky to South Carolina to Colorado. In 2018, a new Farm Bill was passed. The new 2018 Farm Bill even included an amendment, The Hemp Farming Act, which would completely legalize the production of hemp without a pilot program. This means that federally, hemp is now viewed as any other agricultural crop across the United States.

Now, Industrial hemp can make a strong comeback in the US and benefit a large portion of the American population. This could be massively beneficial for rural parts of South Carolina and across the US, where struggling farming industries have led to poverty and hardships. Farmers, processors, manufacturing opportunities, and more will unfold in the next few years, hopefully, sooner rather than later.