The Natural Products Association (NPA) warned that new CBD warning letters and a consumer update from FDA doesn’t go far enough to protect consumers from a looming public health crisis. NPA said it continues to support legislation that would require the FDA to set a safe level of consumption for CBD.    
 
“Consumers and America’s burgeoning hemp industry are the biggest losers here because this so-called action only invites another vaping crisis where illicit and potentially lethal imported substances posing as CBD can and will proliferate,” said Daniel Fabricant, PhD, president and CEO of NPA. “CBD is as common as bottled water in the U.S., and letters to a handful of companies and bureaucratic head scratching helps no one. It is well past time to bring science into the equation as federal rules require and as the U.S. House of Representatives directed. Safety and consumer protection must come first.”
 
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, according to NPA, which allows a natural product to contain a level of a drug ingredient that the FDA has determined to be safe.  
 
A recent NPA poll showed that 44% of Americans are less likely to use CBD products after learning that the 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 also found that 47% of Americans would stop using CBD products if they or someone they knew got sick from using CBD. Seventy percent of registered voters believe FDA should have already established safety standards for CBD products.