While 36 states and DC have legalized medical marijuana, the remaining 14 states have passed laws that allow the use of cannabidiol (CBD) extract, usually in oil form, with little or no tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and often for the treatment of epilepsy or seizures in seriously ill children. See Table 1 below for more information. The NCSL policy on state cannabis laws can be found in the Additional Resources below. States with medical cannabis laws generally have some type of patient registry, which can provide some protection against arrest for possession of up to a certain number of products for personal medical use.
Some of the most common policy questions regarding medical cannabis include how to regulate its recommendation, dispensation and registration of approved patients. Some small cannabis growers are often referred to as caregivers and can grow a certain number of plants per patient. This issue can also be regulated at the local level, in addition to any state regulation. SB 339 (201) Texas Compassionate Use Act (State Marijuana Policy) is covered in episode 4 of the NCSL podcast, Our American States.
You can find it on our website or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. Cannabis has had a difficult history in the United States. Beginning in the 1920s, several states banned the use of the herb, eventually leading the federal government to ban the use of the plant under any circumstances for several decades. Only in the 1970s did regulators consider the plant's medical applications and began implementing medical programs across the country.
CBD would not be recognized as a medicinal agent for quite some time, and regulators saw all forms of the cannabis plant as a medicine, including hemp. Now, as we move into a new decade, the picture is much different. The federal government recently passed a bill that clearly differentiated two forms of the cannabis plant, hemp and marijuana, arguing that the hemp variety cannot produce the psychoactive high inherent in marijuana. They removed hemp from the list of restricted substances, giving people open access to the plant for the first time in more than 80 years.
However, the picture is constantly changing, each state has its own laws to make in response to this federal change, and some are much slower than others. Let's start with an overview of what CBD actually is. CBD is short for cannabidiol, it's just one of the more than 400 compounds found in the cannabis plant and arguably the most relevant for medical use. Cannabinoids are a unique class of compounds not exclusive to the cannabis plant, they can also be found in plants such as echinaceae or helichrysum, but none as abundant as cannabis.
Cannabinoids are classified by their ability to interact with a specialized system of receptors and hormones in the body, aptly called the endocannabinoid system. In contrast, cannabinoids that come from plants such as cannabis are called phytocannabinoids. The endocannabinoid system is a regulatory system, meaning that it indirectly controls a variety of processes in the human body, either by increasing or reducing them. That's why compounds like CBD have such a long list of benefits and uses.
By working through the endocannabinoid system, CBD offers a wide variety of benefits to the human body. It is used to regulate the stress response, promote sleep, regulate metabolism and even reduce the transmission of pain signals that are directed to the brain. The reason why CBD has so many uses is due to its ability to interact with this centrally regulated endocannabinoid system. This has a dripping effect on the rest of the body, helping to regulate other organ systems throughout the body.
Science has come a long way in recent decades to track the benefits of the cannabis plant and its main cannabinoids, CBD and THC (the main psychoactive cannabinoid). Over the years, it is becoming increasingly difficult to deny the benefits of cannabinoids in the cannabis plant, especially CBD. Thousands of scientific studies have been published that highlight the benefits of CBD for a specific condition or define its safety. In light of these reports, the world has begun to open up to the use of CBD as a health supplement.
But with some caveats related to the psychoactive compounds in the cannabis plant, namely THC. Let's explore this important distinction in more detail. The marijuana plant has a long and challenging history with respect to legal status in the United States, as well as in the rest of the world. To this day, it is still banned in most countries.
As times change and more people begin to understand the usefulness of this plant, laws gradually begin to review the status of marijuana country by country. The long and tortuous legal battle over marijuana began in the mid-1930s in the United States. The United States government launched campaigns against its use. They associated it with madness, aggression and criminal activity through propaganda films such as Reefer Madness (released in 1993).
Before this, marijuana was freely sold in pharmacies around the world. The 1936 Geneva Traffic Convention was a treaty aimed at prohibiting worldwide the cultivation, manufacture and distribution of cannabis products. This treaty also included coca and opium. Although some countries chose to ignore this project, it is what led to the regulation of marijuana in much of Europe, as well as in Canada and Australia.
In 1970, the Controlled Substances Act was passed in the United States, which banned marijuana in all forms of use, including medical use. There is a big problem regulators face with the cannabis plant: some of the compounds it produces are powerfully medicinal, while others cause consumers to become high. In the United States, change is slow and frustratingly complicated. Cannabis laws are different at the federal and state levels and can differ significantly from state to state.
Some states allow the use of CBD only with medical approval, others are completely legal, for whatever reason, you can even buy products at corner stores, gas stations and even vending machines. It's not always limited to dispensaries. While laws on the legality of CBD are being relaxed at the federal level, in a select few states you can still be arrested and jailed for carrying a bottle of CBD oil with you. As laws continue to evolve around cannabis, it's vitally important that you pay attention to the local laws in your specific state and check for updates regularly.
There are two main types of cannabis, marijuana and hemp. It's important to make this distinction because it's the most important factor in determining whether a particular product is legal or illegal. Although both types of cannabis are of the exact same species (Cannabis sativa), they produce radically different cannabinoid profiles. We're going to cover each form of cannabis in more detail.
The first type of cannabis (marijuana) is what most people think of when they hear the word “cannabis”. These plants are a form of Cannabis sativa that produces medium to high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the plant's main psychoactive compound. THC is what places users. Marijuana plants are considered a Schedule I drug in the United States, placing them in the same classification as heroin and fentanyl, two of the most dangerous drugs in the United States.
Don't be fooled, marijuana isn't a deadly drug, but laws haven't changed at the federal level in 80 years. There are some exceptions at the state level, but if the federal government ever wanted to convict someone for using marijuana, it could. Hemp is another type of Cannabis sativa that produces less than 0.3% THC on a dry weight basis. This is the only classification for a particular cannabis plant to be considered hemp.
If a particular strain produces even 0.4% THC, it's marijuana. Hemp is not subject to the same legal limits as marijuana. It has long been legal in the United States, but only through rigorous license requests and approval from US regulators. Hemp can now be grown as easily as crops such as corn or wheat in the United States.
Most states respect this change and allow farmers in the state to grow hemp plants, some have resisted. As a by-product of this evolution, supplement companies now have access to hemp as a source of nutritional products, which is now under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate it as a nutritional supplement. The FDA has not yet taken a firm stance for or against the sale of hemp-derived products in the United States and the market has become a bit of a wild west in this regard. Most CBD products, such as CBD oils, CBD capsules, edible gummies, or CBD e-liquids, are made with hemp-derived CBD to sell these products legally.
When the United States federal government submits a change in certain laws, states have the ability to comply with this change or create their own state legislature to challenge the laws. There is no better example of states exercising their right to challenge federal laws than in the area of cannabis laws. Following the publication of the agricultural bill, some states decided to comply with this change, allowing their citizens access to hemp-derived CBD products. Others resisted and enacted laws that made it illegal to possess non-psychoactive hemp plants.
In recent months, many of these states have since been reversed. Below is an updated list of U.S. states divided into two main categories: statutory and conditionally legal states. In the past, we had a list of illegal states, including North Dakota, Nebraska, Idaho and Iowa, but these states have since changed their laws to allow CBD, either for medicinal or over-the-counter purposes, as a health supplement.
There is no longer a state that outright prohibits the use of CBD. You'll find CBD at your local dispensary, in supermarkets, on the Internet, and sometimes even at local gas stations. There are no restrictions on CBD use in these states. Most American CBD companies operate outside of these states, especially in places that have adapted their laws to the forefront, such as Washington, Colorado, Oregon and California.
These states allow citizens to buy hemp-derived products, but there are some caveats. In some states, such as North Dakota or Minnesota, you'll need a doctor's approval and an authorized medical card to buy cannabis products, including CBD. In every conditionally legal state, you can expect it to be a little more difficult to find hemp-derived CBD products locally. CBD is now available in all 50 states of the United States in varying degrees.
Most citizens can legally access the supplement in-store, but they may have difficulty finding it in some of the stricter states that require medical cards. The best option is to buy CBD products online and instead ship them to your home, office, or P.O. Box. In the future, we expect laws to continue to change in the federal and state legislatures as more people demand access to this safe and effective supplement.
The landscape is already changing, as the regulation of legal nutritional products now falls under the regulation of the FDA, which has not yet made any official statement in favor of or against the sale and use of CBD as a nutritional supplement. People suspect that the FDA is cracking down on companies operating in the CBD space. Stay tuned, we'll be sure to keep you informed as the landscape continues to change. Save my name, email and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Connecticut: legalized medical marijuana and CBD products approved by the FDA. Wyoming: CBD oil products are legal as long as the source is hemp and contain less than 0.3% THC. Maine: legalized medical marijuana and CBD products approved by the FDA. Virginia: CBD is legal if obtained legally and if you follow FDA guidelines.
Medical conditions also allow the use of CBD with no more than 0.5% THC. Massachusetts: legal medical marijuana and CBD products approved by the FDA. New Hampshire: legal medical marijuana and CBD products approved by the FDA. New Jersey: FDA-approved medical marijuana and CBD products.
West Virginia: legalized medical marijuana and CBD products approved by the FDA. CBD oil and products are also legal as long as they are approved by the FDA and have less than 0.3% THC. Indiana: It is legal to use CBD oil without other controlled substances and with THC levels lower than 0.3%. Mississippi: allows the use of CBD oil and products with THC levels lower than 0.3% as determined by the FDA.
Before answering the question of which states allow CBD and determining which CBD products you can use, you should understand how the source and intended use of CBD affect legislation. While the legislation didn't legalize CBD itself, it eased pressure on sellers of CBD products in most states. Let's find out and find out if CBD is legal in every state or if some states haven't yet caught up with CBD and its benefits as a drug and as a recreational product. In terms of CBD use, the most lenient states allow consumers to purchase almost all types of CBD, regardless of their source or intended use.
CBD and CBD products in Idaho are legal only if they do not contain THC and are derived from the mature stems of the plant. In other states, recreational use of CBD is only allowed if manufacturers do not extract CBD from marijuana. However, medical grade CBD cannabis oil may be available following the doctor's recommendations for certain qualifying conditions. CBD is mainly used in medicine to treat epilepsy and to calm nerves, however, CBD products are starting to enter the market and can be used for more than medications.
Hemp products such as CBD are in high demand, especially in the medical and nutritional fields, as CBD has many health benefits and is known to combat many diseases. . .
