CBD News Roundup: Polish Zoo To Give Grieving Elephant CBD To Treat Stress

Here’s the latest CBD news:

• An elephant at the Warsaw Zoo in Poland is being given CBD to alleviate stress after losing her companion in March. 
• California races to meet deadlines for CBD legislation.
• Industry insiders are concerned about a potential crackdown coming from the DEA after reviewing its proposed rules for hemp and CBD.

Table of Contents

1. Warsaw Zoo To Give Grieving Elephant CBD To Treat Stress
2. Deadline Arrives For California CBD Legislation
3. Industry Insiders Voice Concerns On New DEA Hemp & CBD Rules

Warsaw Zoo To Give Grieving Elephant CBD To Treat Stress

The Warsaw Zoo has announced that it will give CBD to an African elephant named Fredzia, who has shown signs of distress and depressions since losing her companion in March. The zoo is hoping CBD can help alleviate some of the elephant’s stress. 

The zoo has already tested for the hormone cortisol, which is associated with stress. They plan to mix CBD oil into Fredzia’s food and will monitor her cortisol levels to see if the oil can reduce her anxiety and stress. 

Agnieszka Czujkowska, head of the zoo’s rehabilitation department, said the baseline tests would tell employees whether or not the CBD oil is working, adding that the “only side effect will be some behavioral changes.”

“Fredzia is all alone and she needs [help] to manage it,” she said to the BBC. 

The Warsaw Zoo expects the study to take at least two years to complete, but if successful, they plan to extend the treatment to other animals like rhinos and bears.

Deadline Arrives For California CBD Legislation

Long-awaited legislation for hemp and CBD is looming as a compromise bill may pass by next week.

The deadline for California CBD legislation is the end of August when the state legislature’s 2020 session ends. The bill must be filed, debated, and passed by Monday, or the California hemp and CBD industries will have to wait another year for firmer CBD regulations.

Talks to update the CBD legislation ended early Tuesday morning. Industry lobbyists, representatives, marijuana groups, consumer activists, and lawmakers worked through the weekend to develop a compromise. Advocates are cautiously optimistic. 

“We’re holding our breath to see the final language and hoping we’re on the same page,” said Jonathan Miller, General Counsel for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable.

Governor Gavin Newsom blocked a 2019 bill from California assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Currey in 2019. The bill aimed to allow for CBD to be used as an ingredient in dietary supplements and food products. For the new version, negotiators needed to find a compromise on these fronts. However, some other language favored by the governor’s office gave the California hemp industry great concern.

For example, the governor wants to ban out-of-state products and smokable hemp products. He also wants to restrict CBD to customers over 21, require testing throughout the manufacturing process to ensure the THC level is always below 0.3 percent, and have retailers prove that their products are compliant.  

While California has stalled on CBD legislation, other states have taken the lead in the booming industry and developed their own CBD regulations.

“It’s a billion-dollar industry that we’re watching leave the state of California right now,” said Aguiar-Currey.

Industry Insiders Voice Concerns On New DEA Hemp & CBD Rules

Hemp industry advocates are voicing their concerns over the recently released proposed rules for hemp and CBD from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp and its derivatives, while also moving control from the DEA to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). New USDA rules are still being finalized, but the DEA’s new interim final rule (IFR) plans to redefine marijuana to exclude hemp. The DEA has reiterated that the proposed regulations are meant to align their policies with the Farm Bill, but hemp advocates seem to disagree.

Hemp attorney Rod Kight said the cannabis community believes there is an ulterior motive behind the language in the IFR.

Kight wrote a pair of blogs last week and proclaimed that “the IFR threatens to destroy the hemp/CBD industry.” He further urged stakeholders to submit public comment on the rule before the October 20 deadline. 

“It is not an overstatement to assert that adoption and enforcement of the IFR will severely disrupt, and potentially destroy, the hemp industry,” he said. 

The two main concerns are related to hemp extracts and delta-8 THC, specifically because the DEA considers synthetically derived THC a schedule I controlled substance, a category in which the DEA may place delta-8 THC.

Another attorney, Daniel Shortt, with cannabis-focused law firm Harris Bricken, shared Kight’s concerns and said the language creates an issue because of a “lack of safe haven.”

“Even if you compare it to hemp production, if a farmer accidentally grows hot hemp that has more than the 0.3 percent delta-9 THC, well, then that’s not treated as a criminal penalty,” he said. “That product still needs to be destroyed, but you’re looking at more of a civil penalty or just a warning. I think that those same sort of principles could come through with processing, but it’s not as clear.”