While the hemp and CBD industry has seen historic growth in sales and usage, a new poll from the Natural Products Association (NPA) offered a cautionary warning.
 
According to the online poll, which included 1,000 registered voters, 44% of Americans are less likely to use CBD products after learning that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has no standards in place to protect consumers, including 30% who say they would be far less likely to use the products.
 
Likewise, the poll found that 47% of people who use CBD products would stop using them if they or someone they knew got sick from CBD. Seventy percent of registered voters believe FDA should have already established safety standards for CBD products.  
 
Other crucial findings of the poll include:
 

• 65% believe Congress should direct FDA to quickly set safety standards for CBD products.
• 67% did not know or weren’t sure that CBD products being sold today are illegal. 
• 41% wrongly assumed FDA had already developed safety standards for CBD.
• 30% who have not used CBD products and 76% of CBD users were more likely to try them if they knew the FDA approved regulations determining a level that could be considered safe for use in foods and nutritional supplements.

 
“CBD is a promising new natural product but there is an acute risk of another major public health crisis if Congress allows these products to go unregulated or directs FDA to go easy on illegal products flooding the market. If CBD experiences a vaping-like crisis, it’s bad for public health, bad for the benefits CBD offers and bad for the hemp industry’s growth and job-creating potential,” said Daniel Fabricant, PhD, president and CEO of NPA.  
 
The Senate is currently considering legislation passed by the House of Representatives that would appropriate $100,000 for the FDA to perform a Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE) and set a safe level of CBD for consumers to use each day. The process would follow the same precedent as red yeast rice, which allows a natural product to contain a level of a drug ingredient that the FDA has determined to be safe. With the exception of Epidiolex, all CBD products in the U.S. are considered illegal by the federal government. 
 
Among current users, 89% were either daily (48%) or weekly (41%) users. The poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters between Oct. 1-3, 2019.