Cannabis Reg. Update: California's Safe Drug Consumption Sites, FDA's Advisory Panel Discusses CBD In Food & More

FDA Advisory Panel To Discuss CBD Use In Food & Dietary Supplements

The Science Board of the FDA is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, June 14, to discuss “challenges in evaluating the safety of dietary supplement and food ingredients with predicted pharmacological activity, utilizing cannabinoids as a case study.”

The group of nutrition and drug-safety experts intends to focus on hemp-derived CBD. Now, the cannabinoid producers have through June 7 to submit both data and comments to the U.S. health regulators, according to a recently published notice by the FDA.

This meeting is the first gathering since the U.S. Hemp Roundtable sent the FDA the res that ults of a study disproving some concerns the regulatory body expressed concerning CBD, such as the possibility of liver toxicity and lowered testosterone in males.

California May Get Safe Drug Consumption Sites As Bill To Allow Pilot Program Advances Through Another Assembly Committee

A bill that would authorize safe consumption sites for illicit drugs, through certain jurisdictions in California, as part of a pilot program, got the green light from the state’s Assembly Committee on Wednesday, reported Marijuana Moment.

The legislation from Sen. Scott Wiener (D), which was passed by the full Senate last year, was first introduced in 2020.

The measure advanced through Health Committee and is now approved by the Public Safety Committee in a 5-2 vote, and sent to the Assembly floor for review. To reach the governor's desk, the bill needs to go back to the Senate for concurrence if and when it passes the Assembly floor.

Wiener said on Wednesday that “we are experiencing a crisis of overdose deaths, and these are preventable.”

Before the vote, he explained that safe consumption sites help “people who are already using drugs—often on our streets, on our sidewalks, in front of people’s homes or businesses where people, including children, can see them using drugs” by providing them a “safe and clean space where they can bring the drugs they were already going to use and use it in an environment where we make sure that they have clean needles, where there’s supervision.”

Texas Cannabis Activists Score Another Victory

Cannabis activists said Wednesday that they have garnered enough signatures - more than 10 000 - to qualify a cannabis decriminalization initiative for the local November ballot in San Marcos.

The move comes on the heels of Ground Game Texas’s latest successful effort – a decriminalization bill that voters in Killeen and Austin greenlighted earlier this year.

Ground Game Texas has pre-verified 4,500 valid signatures, which exceeds the city's requirement of collecting one-tenth of the number of registered voters in San Marcos.

“For too long, San Marcos residents have faced the undue burden of legal troubles, financial hardship, and even incarceration for low-level marijuana offenses,” Julie Oliver, executive director of Ground Game Texas said in a press release. “Ground Game Texas and Mano Amiga are proud to give voters in San Marcos the opportunity to reform local marijuana laws on the November ballot.”

Photo: Courtesy of Jeff W on Unsplash