In December 2018, Congress passed the Farm Bill, a bill that legalized industrial hemp, a non-psychoactive variety of cannabis, after decades of prohibition. While the plant is insanely versatile, its main draw is cannabidiol, or CBD. Produced by industrial hemp in high quantities, CBD is a potent natural medicine with a plethora of uses.
However, most of the evidence of its medical abilities is anecdotal. So although consumers swear by its abilities, the science doesn’t fully back them up yet. Given CBD’s ambiguous legal position and due to its connection to marijuana, several organizations have taken a tough stance against it. Still, the hemp extract has a thriving market, with experts saying the CBD industry may be worth $20 billion in 2024.
It seems things may have taken a positive turn for cannabidiol after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stated during a Twitter Q&A that it is looking into changing its internal policy on CBD use by agents and employees. At the moment, the agency prohibits its workers from using marijuana, and applicants can be disqualified for consuming cannabis within the past three years.
During the Q&A session with the FBI’s Newark office, one individual wanted to know why the agency says ‘you cannot use marijuana within three years of applying, even with a medical card prescription,’ and the FBI stated that ‘the policy regarding CBD oil is currently under review.’
The agency’s former director James Comey had said back in 2014 that he wished to loosen the FBI’s marijuana employment policies as potential skilled workers were being passed over. “I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” he explained.
“What I like about what’s going on in the U.S. is we call the states the laboratories of democracy, and allow the people to experiment, experiment is the wrong word, but to make choices, to try and figure out the best ways not to criminalize behavior that people want to engage in, but also not to reward behavior that might hurt especially young people,” he added, referring to marijuana legalization in different states.
The FBI isn’t the only agency grappling with CBD use among employees. The Department of Transportation took a more positive stance, stating in a notice that it would not be testing drivers for CBD. However, others haven’t been as kind. NASA, the Air Force, the Navy and the Department of Defense have made it clear that CBD is off limits.
Experts say sector players like Green Growth Brands Inc. (CSE: GGB) (OTCQB: GGBXF) are unlikely to draw much from the response given during a Q&A session until an actual policy revision is made and published.
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